Pandas!

It seems the more time I spend in China, the more I like it. Chengdu marks the first time I've been in a major Chinese city. I was expecting it to be just that: major. Loud, dirty, noisy. It's none of the above. Last night I walked around the downtown core and along the main shopping areas and was once again loving the city. It's a clean, organized show. Even walking around the streets today at peak hour was a little busy on the streets but nothing close to the amount of traffic that I thought there would be. Parks and paths line the river that snakes through the city, and even the traffic noise is barely noticeable. Once again while on this trip, I found myself thinking China is one of the few places I could live.

Today also marked the first time I've used a public bus in this country. It was very easy, all the bus stops are labeled in English, and all stops are announced over a speaker inside the bus. At first I didn't notice that they're briefly stated in English, but after a while I picked up 'the next stop' through the Chinese accent. My destination today was the Panda research centre, which is basically a big zoo for pandas, where they conduct research. It was a really cool place; I found myself walking around it twice. The pandas themselves are adorable, it's hard to believe that they're even in the same genus as the bears we have back home, which are some of the most dangerous animals in the world. But underneath those cute layers black and cream fur they do have claws and teeth, I suppose. It was really cool to see Red Pandas, too. They're more like red raccoons than anything, but still incredibly cute. I filled up an entire 4G SD card taking pics of them, and hopefully my blog's email capacity limit will allow one of them to come through on this post.

Tomorrow, I head to Emei Shan to hike along hilltop temples for two days, and hopefully not get any of my things stole by monkeys!