Aaaahhhh

Baby pandas. Bless. Had another overnight train ride from Xi'an to Chengdu (similar activities to the last one) then went to visit the Panda Breeding Centre nearby the following morning. I thought they would just sit there in their enclosures munching on bamboo but they were quite active - two of them had climbed up a tree and were trying their best to displace each other from the top perch. Needless to say the 6 babies in the panda incubator were very cute. Apparently pandas aren't the most maternal creatures so the cubs often need to be taken away from their mothers for their own safety until they're a bit older.

Slight issue within the tour group emerging. The female half of the Canadian couple is a feisty little one and as she keeps reminding us all, has done 12 trips with this tour company before. Anyway, she reckons a couple of the entry fees that we've been charged for should be included within the overall cost but the way she puts this to our Chinese tour leader David has all the subtlety of a knee in the crotch. It says in our tour notes that one of the worst things you can do to a Chinese person is disrespect them in public, but that doesn't stop her from shouting her mouth off to him in front of the rest of us. He seems a pretty easy going guy but I wouldn't blame him for slipping some superstrength laxative into her noodles.

Chengdu, China