Cheng Du is known throughout China for having the most beautiful women and spiciest food! The locals claim that spicy food is good for the skin, and that is why their women are the most beautiful!!
We only stayed in Cheng Du for 1 night at a hostel called "Mr Panda" guesthouse. A clean, cheap hostel with a crazy owner who brewed his own rice wine and is far too kind - giving it out to everyone!
That evening we went to the most famous Sichuan Hotpot restaurant in the city.
These fondue style hotpot's sit in the centre of the table and can only be described as a "chilli and peppercorn boiling lava pots" where you throw uncooked pieces of uncooked meat and veg into it.
Most of our group found this dish far too spicy and stuck to the non-spicy bit in the middle. But Ollie being a crazy "chilli head" loved all of it even though his face went numb and his head looked like it was melting.
The main reason for visiting Cheng Du was to visit the ever elusive, cute, cuddly but shy PANDA'S!
The next morning we got to the breeding centre nice an early and were the first tourists to see the 12 new baby panda's at 9am! Tiny and fluffy they resembled the teddy panda that we got for our lovely little Tilly perfectly and we just wanted to pick them up and take them home! (Jay and Em - the panda will be sent when we get to Sydney!)
All of the bigger pandas (the adolescents) were a lot more fun - running around making high pitched squealing noises! Getting themselves all excited!
The adult pandas were a lot more docile, most of them having a snooze in the trees or munching away on bamboo!
We also got to see lots of Red Panda's - very close up as you walk through their enclosure. They literally walk next to you, occasionally looking up with an expression saying "who the hell are you and why are you in my house?!?" This made me giggle a lot and again want to pick them up and give them a squish!
It is very sad to think that there are so few of these majestic animals in the wild still, but the breeding centre are doing an amazing job at looking after them and keeping them happy. Their breeding program is also working very well and you can see how much care goes into looking after all of the animals!
We jumped on the night train ready for the 15hr journey to Xian - the first capital of China!
No comments:
Post a Comment