Day 16-18, Chengdu Rest Days;

The main reason for stopping in Chengdu is it has a world renowned breeding and conservation centre for pandas (both giant and red). Pandas were my favourite childhood animal and Chris being a zoologist was interested too. The Pandas were cool! Also as panda breeding season is spring there were lots of cute babies that had just grown fur and not so cute bald newborns in incubators.

We also met up with Zhang, a lovely lady who helped us get maps for China and is also a keen cyclist. She lives in Beijing but is from Chengdu and happened to be in the city. She spoilt us and showed us the city from a locals perspective, we went to Dofu's cottage (for those from Cardiff it was like a Chinese St Fagan's) and chilled out in a tea house. Then in the evening went with Zhang and her family to where people from Chengdu like to eat out. The restaurant was packed and the food was yummy (although we weren't brave enough for the spicy duck heads!).

Baby panda, just starting to grow fur

Cute baby pandas now with fur!