We had a long weekend this week for Tomb Sweeping day, which gave us Thursday off meaning that we had from Tuesday morning until Sunday to travel. We decided to go to a city called Chengdu in Western China to visit their famous panda center and a nearby mountain (to come in a later post) with our roommates and one other friend. We booked a trip to the panda center on our first day through our hostel, and got picked up early in the morning to make our way over there. We had an "English speaking" tour guide who took us to all the areas worth seeing. I put quotes around his English abilities because he basically new how to say "panda", "very cute" and "hold panda - money money money", referring to an experience where you can hold a baby panda for a big donation of money. We wandered around the park and saw baby pandas, giant adult pandas and red pandas. The center was amazing, like a zoo just for pandas. They are also a breeding center so they have a lot of different aged pandas all with tons of room to spread out, run around and eat bamboo. We really enjoyed watching them all, as they were really cute and also very relaxed. We watched them hang out, "talk" to each other, and eat pounds and pounds of bamboo - living the life if you ask me! Then, 4 out of the 5 of us (Joe wasn't interested) made the big donation to spend some time holding a baby panda. We were very excited, and although it was a lot of money, we couldn't leave the park without getting the opportunity to give this 6 month old panda a big hug and a belly rub. They placed the panda on our laps one at a time and we got to cuddle and play with it while our friends and the staff took pictures on our cameras. When we were done, we were given a printed picture in a frame, a sweatshirt and a certificate thanking us for our donation. Overall it was an awesome day and an experience that I will never forget! Prepare yourselves for lots of panda pictures.....
The first panda we saw munching on his breakfast
A baby panda hanging out on a tree
A mom and her baby
Enjoying a nice butt scratch
So relaxed
The adult pandas were huge!
The most pandas we saw in one place, all enjoying each others company and eating
One of the red pandas in a different area
A kung fu panda in its natural habitat
All of us dressed up to meet the little panda
SO CUDDLY!
A big kiss before i had to let her go
Too cute, not sure who is the cutest, you or the panda cub. Adorable! You lucky girl, the chance of a lifetime. Amazing, I wish I could do that too.
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