Chengdu, Emie Shan and Leshan - Sichuan province

When we arrived in Chengdu we went to a so called hostel calld the loft. This place rivalled the boulder for sheer coolness of accomodation. Free internet, pool table, ps2, dvd player ll in a converted loft space that was just the absolute business and all for 1 pound a night! In Chengdu we went to the Giant Panda Research Base. Seeing pandas just chilling out eating their own weight in bamboo was pretty cool. We also saw the Red Panda, which is more closely related to the racoon, where as the Giant Panda is more related to various bears.

We also did a trip to see the largest seated buddha statue in the world at 71m high in Leshan, that was certainly a neck strainer. Also from Leshan we went to Emie Shan where we didnt climb as much as Hua Shan, it is more jungle like rather than rock like Hua shan, instead we just walked around going into various temples and seeing the wild monkeys that ravage you for food. Then we made our way back to Chengdu where we stayed at the awsome Loft again as the next say we left for Guiylin, in the South in Guangxi province. A 36 hour train journey was quite fun.