Today we did one of the highlights of our China tour, a visit to the Panda Center in Chengdu to see some Giant Pandas in the flesh. First we wanted to go there by ourselves with a taxi or bus, but a German couple we met said that it was quite small and two hours for the center was more than enough, so we decided to follow their advice and book the tour with the hostel.

This meant getting up early, as the car left at 7:50 am sharp to ensure we were early enough in the center to see the pandas active. Because they are smart animals, after breakfast they go to sleep and you won’t see them a lot anymore. The early rise was though not so great for Charlotte, who was still sleepy and did not eat a good breakfast, something that would come back on us later.

After a short 40min drive we arrived at the panda center and walked straight in to search for those cute animals. And yes, we saw several nice pandas which were eating, walking around or just hanging in a tree. Almost even more cute than the giant pandas were the red ones, they are very small and climb up in the trees, one walked just right pass us.

And then it came, Charlotte was tired, hungry and had a very bad temper. In search of the restaurant we skipped part of the park only to find out it was not open yet. So let us tell you, perhaps it is not the healthiest of breakfasts, but the ice cream was definitely a life saver at that moment 🙂

For every one out there who think 2-3 hours is enough for the panda park, that may be the case without children, but next time we would definitely go on our own and ensure we do not have a hard deadline for the ride back.

Back in the hostel we made use of the DVD room and had some time as Charlotte watched Pocahontas and got slowly a better mood 🙂 After everybody was well rested we took the bus line 1 to the WenShu monastery where we were just in time to take a short look and then had diner in the monastery’s own vegetarian restaurant. This was very nice, a veggie hotpot and even Charlotte was amazed what kinds of vegetables she could cook herself.