We had booked a tour today for the Panda Research Center outside Chengdu. This was our first trip where almost everyone was a westerner, including a number of Americans, it was nice, there was no fighting or yelling, no one stepping in front of your camera while you are taking a picture so they can get the same picture.While we were there we saw a whole lot of pandas, Charlotte even paid to hold a one year old panda. When they took the panda away from each person it would make a squealing sound, but then they would put honey on the back of its hand and it would go crazy licking it and forget it was being held, until they moved it again.
When we got there it was the start of feeding time
We also saw red pandas
Then we saw some sleeping in and air conditioned room
They slept in very strange positions
Charlotte and her 1 year old panda
After the pandas we were still tired from the days before so we took a nap. We woke up and tried to book our weekend trip to Jiuzhaigou national park (九寨溝), but realized fast we would not be able to just find a bus and would need to book a tour. At time it has been very helpful having Charlotte around, this was not one of them. Chinese people seem to not like dealing with people they consider Chinese. She went to a hostel which told her they would not help her because she wasn't a foreigner. When she told them she is American, they were embarrassed, but still not helpful. We have heard from many hostels that they prefer foreigners over local people because they are less picky. We finally found a local travel agent that was willing to help Charlotte and we booked the trip
After that was done we decided to walk through some pedestrian shopping areas and ended the night with spicy hotpot. We went to a very popular hot pot restaurant, but were very disappointed. Like most things in China, the food was extremely greasy. In fact the dipping sauce was a soup bowl filled with sesame oil in which you add some BBQ sauce and garlic. Once again an unsatisfying meal.
Not as good as it looks
Seems like a good place to park your nice car outside the hotpot place on the sidewalk next to trash
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