The Pandas!

We went to the Panda Reserve in Chengdu today, much to the delight and excitement of the girls. It was a really hot day and so luckily quite a bit of the reserve was shaded by bamboo trees. There was one bit which was out in the open and Martha was pouring water on her head to keep cool! The pandas were so cute and it was hard to believe that we were standing within arms reach of them as they munched away on endless bamboo. The cubs were adorable, although they were all mostly indoors, lying on cool floors, due to the heat. There had not been any new arrivals recently, so the incubators were empty, but we watched a film of some of the pandas giving birth and looking after their tiny cubs. After we'd been there a little while, Esther said to me "Mum, can we go now - this is so boring just looking at pandas all day long!". You have to laugh!!


We really like Chengdu. It's a comparitively small city which has a nice relaxed and laid back vibe. However, we did see a motorcyclist come off a lot worse in a collision with a car at a junction yesterday. The roads here are as mad as ever!
This afternoon, the girls swam with Gra while I had a back massage...it's a hard life! Actually, I was hoping for a nice relaxing back massage, but after having my pressure points pummelled and pressed I felt quite bruised!

Tomorrow, we are going to go out into town and hope to go to a Buddhist temple so the girls can see this part of Chinese life.

Martha says, " I went to see the pandas today and I loved the baby cubs the best."

Esther says, " I am missing you Becca but I will be ok when I see you and we have an ice cream together at the beach side."

Tomorrow will be our last day with Janet as she will say goodbye to us when we fly up to Beijing on Thursday. She is so lovely and we will miss her keeping on saying "You very be careful" and to Graham (every five minutes) "OK Check! Check bags, check money, check babies, check wife ... you need to very be careful."