7th November 2007: - We arrived @ 8.25 exactly into a smoggy Xian. Members of Bell Tower Youth Hostel were there to pick us up from the station, for free. 10 mins in the minibus & we reach the Hostel, this is more of a Hostel then the Jade (We were spoilt there). Bedrooms are comfy & the shower is a tap, but hot. Altogether I think great value for money @ 10 pounds a night. We have breakfast in the Hostel restaurant & then head out. Our task today is to purchase our onward ticket to Chengdu. Drew is becoming an expert at purchasing our tickets & had the task completed in about 10 mins from the ticket office @ Xi an. Directly from the train station we caught bus 306 to the Terracotta Warriors. Unfortunately when we arrived we found out that pit 2 is closed & will be until the middle of 2008. Although the cost of the ticket is reduced we are slightly disappointed we do not get to see all pits. We opt for no guides or audio tapes & start off with the film, which is a good introduction to the Warriors history. Pit 3 is where we start from, this is very small compared to the others & shows you warriors mainly in tact, however paint has now disappeared from their faces, pictures indicate how they used to be. Pit 1, saving the best till last, this hall is about the size of a football pitch & shows complete & incomplete Warriors. Sunlight shines through the roof & creates perfect lighting for pictures. The warriors faces look so life like, you swear there eyes are following you around!
8th November 2007: - We had a lazy morning today as we planned to head out to the little goose Pagoda to coincide with our dinner. Did not much at all, just chilled in the Youth Hostel bas & had a quick go on the internet. Little Goose Pagoda is about 45 mins walk from the hostel along the bustling roads. It cost 50 Yuan per person to enter the park, Pagoda & Museum. The park is very well kept but is not that quiet as it is surrounded by roads & a school is near by. We climbed the Little Goose Pagoda to its 11th floor & got some good views of the Xian smog. It’s not really that bad, but it does restrict your views outside of the park. The Pagoda use to be 14 floors high, however when an earthquake hit some time ago it destroyed the top floors. Its looks slightly hap hazard in some places, but is a lovely old building in the middle of the urban swell. After our Pagoda climb we then headed to the new museum that only just opened in May 2007. It was very informative & had some fascinating displays of pottery figures, porcelain, weapons, iron & copper items & last but not least Jade ornaments, the oldest dating back to 2500-2000BC, a hair pin & a knife. This museum is well worth a visit, better laid out than that of The Forbidden City exhibition halls! We finished off our day @ a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet called Maoganf Xiangcaiguan opposite the Little Goose Pagoda. We had some very interesting dishes, spare ribs were excellent, however I ordered the chili chicken dish & oh my goodness it was soooooo hot, I only had one bite quickly followed by a glass of Pepsi, hilar!
9th November 2007: - Yet again we packed up our belongings & checked out of the Bell Tower Hostel。 Leaving our luggage we head over to a dumpling restaurant for lunch. A fantastic find, we enjoy pork & vegetable & pork & mushroom dumplings the latter being our favorites, we were not brave enough to try the Seafood or Mutton (Delhi!). Dumplings are so filling & a cheap meal @ only 40 Yuan including drinks, that’s a massive 2.50 GBP。 After our authentic Chinese lunch (which by the way is still repeating on us both) we opted to have a very American coffee & muffin @ Starbucks. Now stuffed to the brim we head back to the hostel to have some chill time & to play with the cute kittens & a very tiny puppy. I was trying to entice them out of the hostel, but they were having none of it, boo! We are now successfully on our train to Chengdu, a bit of an old train, but it is transport & accommodation for one night @ 15.00 GBP per person. Again the train left dead on time @ 17.30.
10th November 2007: - Arrived in Chengdu @ 11.45 & we were met by someone from the Dragon Hostel & were put straight into a taxi. Excellent, no worries at all, well that was until we got to the Hostel where we found out that they had recently moved & that the pictures on the Internet did not resemble our accommodation @ all. The Hostel is still in an old Hutong area but the splendid courtyard is not here & we have a touch of mould in our room added along with the lovely smell of damp, hmmm lovely. We did not really have time to change so we just grin & bared it. Staff however are very helpful & could speak really good English. We even booked our next train journey through them, two hard sleepers to Panzihua @ a cost of 265 Yuan. Can not wait to see what hard sleepers are like, we normally like being a couple of softies! We left our damp room & headed out to Wenshu Temple. The Temple is in the middle of Chengdu & is a slice of calm & tranquility in the middle of busy thorough fares. Wenshu Temple is independently funded, one o their projects is a vegetarian restaurant, which looked lovely, however we arrived outside opening hours. They are putting in new a new drainage system at the moment so the place is a bit untidy in areas, but it does not detract from the relaxing environment. Monks walk around cleaning up after people & plants that drop their leaves, incense sticks burn in giant pots allowing smoke to fill the courtyards. Gardens are looked after extremely well & bonsai trees look ancient & molded into intricate shapes by skilled hands. Men bring their song birds in to the grounds so both birds & men can have a good old gossip. We both loved Wenshu temple & no-one should miss out on a visit.
11th November 2007: - Well today was an early start & we were picked up from the Hostel @ 7.20am to go & see what Chengdu is most famous for， Giant Pandas，Yeah. I for one was so excited & when we arrived I could not help but walk fast to the first enclosure. My first encounter was amazing, they are so adorable & I just so huggable. The reason why we arrived so early is because the Pandas get fed in the morning only, so therefore they are more active. We watched as two pandas decided to have a play fight (5mins of footage) one of them succeeding in pushing the other off of a bamboo platform. However he was not deterred & climbed straight back up to get his own back. We then headed over to the nursery where there were about 8 1.5 year olds crunching on mouth falls of bamboo stems & leaves. They have such casual table manners, lying down on their backs & reaching either side for there morning meal. Our guide saved the best till last & took us to see some very tiny pandas @ just 6 months old, I did tell Drew that one could easily fit in my Backpack, just a tad bit bigger than a penguin! Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures of the youngsters as camera flashes destroy their eyesight @ such an early age. We also had time to see some red pandas that they breed here @ the centre & again they looked so cute, we will put some pictures on here for you Jess.
12th November 2007: - We had a bit of a wander this morning, taking in the people’s park. We were going to visit the park @ day break however our bed was far too cozy after a tad late night. Again this green area is impressive & well kept. The difference here is there were tons of Hibiscus displays, apparently Chengdu in the past earned the nick name of Hibiscus city & I can see why. They smell gorgeous; there were so many different colours & sizes. I don’s think I would have the patience to create such beautiful displays, I have a problem with weeding, don’t I mum?
At this present moment we are traveling on the train to Panzihua in our hard sleeper section & to tell you the truth it ok, a bit noisier than a soft sleeper. However we have got the Ipod out to keep us company. It is 19.40 & we should arrive @ 6.23. Then we just have the fun of trying to find a bus to Lijiang. Will let you know how that adventure goes tom.
