Chengdu or we are visiting pandas!

While planning this trip, I wanted to include in our agenda a little bit of everything - modern cities, ancient sites, nature and a bit of fauna. And the fauna that China is the most known of are of course pandas. I learned more about them in the Belgian zoo called Pairi Daiza. In fact, it is one of the very few places in the world - outside China - where pandas can be seen. China is the only owner of all the pandas worldwide.

And the Chinese capital of pandas is Sichuan province with its capital Chengdu, which was our next destination after Xian. So since pandas was our main reason to come to Chengdu, the next day we of course started the day with the visit at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. This place imitates the natural habitat of giant pandas, so they might have the best possible environment for rearing and breeding.

When we arrived in the late morning, the Panda Base was of course totally crowded. In addition, in the middle of the summer pandas were rather staying inside, as it was too hot for them to be outside. This meant that it was really difficult to see them as not only they were hidden, but it was also not easy to see something through dozens of people.

While continuing our visit in the Base, we noticed a huge queue - we did not know what it was for, but we stood there as well. After a very long awaiting, we found out that it was a queue to baby pandas! Some of them were put in the incubators. They were super cute!

 

 

At some point it started to rain - quite badly. It was actually great, as within half an hour 80% of people left the place and never returned. When the rain stopped, we could enjoy the pandas and come back to the baby pandas, as there was no queue ;-)

 
In the park there were not only giant pandas, but also red pandas :)

 

Everybody knows that pandas love bamboo, and so this place was full of bamboo. 

On the last day in Chengdu we went to see the Wenshu Monastery - probably the second biggest attraction of Chengdu. The Wenshu Yuan Monastery is the best preserved ancient monastery in Chegdu (built in the beginning of seventh century). In fact it is a huge complex of around 13 acres, comprising Buddha temples, shrines and gardens. It was a very pleasant and peaceful place with beautiful wooden and stone architecture.

 

We spent the evening wandering in the Jinli Street. This street was for centuries one of the busiest commercial areas in Chengdu. Nowadays it is still possible to admire traditional Chinese architecture and do some shopping