Mix Hostel Chengdu

We made it to Cheng Du in Sichuan province, enduring the longest train trip that either of us has undertook in our life time. We knew it was trouble when we found out that we were traveling on the 2nd biggest holiday of the Chinese year: the Moon Festival. The train station was really crowded and the train was 100% sold out. The trip was scheduled to leave at 20:07 and we were scheduled to arrive around noon the next day. It was a rather nice night out for the moon festival and knowing how pa...

Sadly I left Lhasa, however off to Chengdu and Sichuan I went. There I came to grips with my obsession with pandas - pandamonium here we come. I love them, love them and if you have a heart you MUST do too. Chengdu is a pretty relaxed place even though it is a muckle place. I also came around to finding a few extremely lovely and helpful Chinese people, as unfortunately up to this point I hadn't met that many - as most of the nice people I had met were in Tibet and were Tibetans. I think my ...

The train actually arrived an hour early at 5:30am but that still did not stop the train attendant grabbing my leg and shaking it to the point of almost pulling it off at 4:30am probably so the Chinese have time to make their breakfast instant noodles. We were met at the station and taking to the Mix Hostel but then immediately jumped into a taxi after checking in, along with a French guy who has also just arrived, to go to the Panada Research and Breeding Centre just outside of town (darn Pa...

The first thing that hit me when we got into Chengdu was that the heat and pollution were back - the white haze is just as bad as Beijing. We checked into the Mix Hostel, which has to be be of the all-round best in China - big, friendly, great common room, beers Y2.5 from the shop outside. I have to say I didn't do a great deal in Chengdu - it's a nice place, but most of the good stuff is quite a way away from the centre. I was going to go to the panda research station, but in the end I was ...

I took the plane from Lijang to Chengdu.

After getting our bags we exited the train and went through the station to the outside. There was a large fenced off area with hundreds of people waiting for passengers to get off the train. There were many signs being held saying the names of hotels and hostels. Unfortunately ours was not one of them. I had emailed and prebooked a room, they emailed back and confirmed they would pick us up at the train station. It took a lot of work and crafty communication skills, but we finally got someone...

So you would think 35 hours on a train would be hideous, but in China it really is a great way to travel. We left Connie and Dave in Shanghai and caught the train -at 8am after 4 hours sleep, I blame that entirely on you Dave- from the enormous Shanghai train station. They have departure lounges in the station for each train, ours was about the size of terminal 5 at Heathrow! We had booked onto 'hard sleeper' and opted for the bottom bunks, on Dave's advice- good choice, thanks again Davo! Th...

Tag. Nach einem kurzen Aufenthalt in Xi'An bin ich nun in Chengdu. In Xi'An habe ich mir die 2000 Jahre alten Terakotta Krieger angeschaut. Diese sind beeindruckend, wenn man bedenkt, dass die tausenden Soldaten alle einzigartig sind und bewaffnet waren. Welch ein nvorstellbarer Afwand das gewesen sein muss, zumal die freigelegte Stelle wohl nur ein Bruchteil des Ganzen ist. In Xi'an gibt es asgezeichnete Kueche, da dort die Seidenstrasze endete haben dort Haendler arabische koesltichkeiten "...

"Breathe!" Serena told us, lifting her arms to the bamboo canopy above. "Wash your lungs!" And we did, glad of the cool forest after the gray smog/fog that choked the rest of Chengdu. As Dan and Serena and I wandered through the tunnels formed by the bending bamboo, I reflected on how iconically Chinese bamboo is, as much a symbol of the country as the pandas we were on our way to see. And, funny that the one icon depends on the other, and that we were walking through a giant copse of panda f...

A big hello from the home of the great panda!

Sorry I have been neglecting the old blogging duties, but I'm now back on track.

I arrived from Jiuzhaigou at 1.30pm today, and yes, I'm afraid I have found myself in another big city. The 5th largest in China in fact! But I am passing no judgement as yet, all I have managed in to do my laundry and get the room key stuck in the door knob. Oh, but don't worry, a 90+ lady was able to remove it with a bit of brute strength... I am tur...