Chengdu

We came to Chengdu the capital of Sichuan Province especially to visit the Pandas at The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base some 12 kilometers from the city center.

We stayed at the Traffic Hotel, popular with backpackers, comfortable very clean and still reasonably cheap.  George of the Jungle who has a travel agency in the hotel grounds, arranged for a car and driver to take us to the Research Base but we could just as easily have hired him ourselves as he was standing at the entrance to the hotel.

The best time to see the Pandas while moderately active is between 8.30 and 10.00am when they are feeding. They are magnificent, the cubs adorable and it's possible to see them at quite close quarters.

Very quickly they return to their favourite pastime, sleeping.   In 2000 I wrote   "there is a rather sad museum at the entrance and an uninspiring gift counter".  Things had much improved by the time of my 2007 visit.