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The trip started from 15/5/1999 to 11/6/1999. Yanling and I were on  the road for 4 weeks, covering places from Chengdu (Sichuan Provience) to Kashgar (Xinjiang Provience), while the others hit home after reaching Lanzhou.
 

 Chengdu

Day 1: From the moment we touched down  Chengdu's International Airport, the adventure began. Immigration clearance took 1 hour, and the moment we stepped out of the arrival hall, we were shoved up a bus by a very loud voiced lady, assuring us that the bus will start that very moment.
We had a hard time finding our accommodation: Sam's Guesthouse in Chengdu Chinese Medical University.
After settling down at Sam's Guesthouse, we were too tired and rested till evening, when we felt hungry and therefore went in search for Sichuan's infamous 'hot pot'. We settled for 'Huang Cheng Lao Ma' hot pot. The dinner was very satisfying, where we had lots veg and meat, and on top of these, a 100 ++ Yuan fish, that had lots of bones and finished up mostly by Yanling (we just gave up the attempt)!!! Nonetheless, the fish added flavour to the soup.

Here we are, enjoying a hearty meal of hot pot.
 

Day 2: We've finally got to see a real panda at the Panda Research Centre!!! The 1st panda we saw was this 'lesser panda', which is a small, brown, tree climbing creature, that does not look anything like a giant panda that we know of. We were obviously disappointed, and started to ask other visitors where a real giant panda is. One of the passerby actually gave us this 'you mean you've not seen a giant panda yet?' look. At last we found one!!
**Xiao Shuang**

 

Renming Park in Chengdu is a very relaxing place where people just sit down for hours, especially during weekends, with a cup of Chinese tea.  We tried it too, and were glued to the seats for more than 1 hour, only to leave when it seemed to rain. Try it too when you're in Chengdu!!