Chengdu is home to one of China's biggest Panda Research Centres. An endangered species - there are less than a 1000 Giant Pandas left in the wild in the high mountainous areas of this province. They are actually not that 'giant'- about 4 feet tall-ish, but big and round and cuddly. We were glad to see that they have a lot of space to live in and get treated fairly well. They get fed at about 10am every morning when they sit around eating masses and masses (approx 20kg a day) of huge bamboo stems, normally one in each paw until they've had enough, usually about an hour later. We watched them for ages munching away and then stealing bamboo off each other when there wasn't much left. They were very comical. When they'd had their fill, they literally couldn't move and would collapsed in a heap - crash out wherever they were: head flopped and flat on their fronts for a siesta that lasted pretty much the rest of the day - until tomorrow's feeding time. The smaller red Pandas, also very cute, were more like racoons and a lot more active than the Giant Pandas. Not as cuddly though!
Our hostel was quite busy and a few of us (including Alan from our Everest trip) joined up to watch the World Cup - the first England match was at midnight. We tried to watch it on a big screen in town, but they forgot to put the game on the big screen. It was on tiny screens instead so decided to rush back to the hostel to catch the rest of the match. Every bit of space in the courtyard was taken up, but the atmosphere at the hostel was nice with everyone packed in. Even though England beat Paraguay 1-0, we were not impressed. The Swedish girls in our group were disappointed that Sweden didn't score in their game, but we had to agree - at least they had played better football than England! *Mush
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