We only had the morning in Xi'an before setting off on the train to Chengdu so we decided to head back to the Muslim quarter and visit the Great Mosque. On the way there we took a short cut thorough a shopping mall that had just opened and managed to see their welcome the customer ceremony. It was very creepy as each shop we passed had the attendants standing out the front holding their hands in front of themselves and watching us as we passed. The Great mosque was very different from any of the mosques we had visited in the past due to its strong Chinese flavour and we were not allowed to go inside the prayer hall. It was quite peaceful inside the grounds, more so than the temples we have visited here.
We headed off for the train at 11.30am and had to wait around the train station until we could board our 1.20pm train at 12.50pm. Once on board we settled in and had a Mandarin lesson from Yisha. The scenery along the way was spectacular, first though flat fields then through the mountains.
We had dinner in the restaurant car which was a challenge. We were lucky that a Chinese guy saw us trying to decipher the menu and came to help us. We had a very nice meal of tomato and egg soup, shredded potato and some beef with celery. He also helped out the others when they turned up for dinner. It turned out he was from the same carriage as us and David had a long chat with him back in our carriage. He works in Xi'an and was on his way to Chengdu for his holidays to visit his family. He was very happy to be able to practice his English as he did not get much of a chance where he lived.
None of us had a very good sleep as a couple of times during the night there were a bunch of people talking very loudly at the end of our beds. We were woken at 4.30am to get ready to arrive in Chengdu at 5.30am. We were picked up at the train station and taken to the hotel to freshen up before our visit to the Giant panda breeding centre. Most of us fell asleep on the bus on the way there because we were so tired, but once we arrived we were very excited about seeing the Pandas. Our fist encounter was with a couple of adult males. They are all kept in separate enclosures as they tend to fight if they are together. We visited the pre adults next, 1 1/2 years old and many of them in one enclosure. They were so cute playing around on the bamboo structures in their enclosure.
We also saw some babies in the Nursery. They were so cute, there were two of them in different cages but one squeezed its way into the other ones cage and ended up sitting on it. Steph paid 1000 Yuan to hold one of the baby pandas. She said it was quite heavy even though it was only 6 months old.
Our next visit was the WuHou Temple and Monastery where we had a huge vegetarian lunch. It was absolutely delicious and way too much food for us to eat.
We walked through the grounds after lunch, stopping to watch the turtles in a pond and feeling very relaxed in the very peaceful environment. We then headed back to the hotel to have a rest before meeting for dinner at 7pm. We both managed to call our Mothers before dinner which was really nice. We also walked around the street our hotel was on and to a park close by and walked around enjoying the scenery and the peace and quiet.
Even though most of us were not hungry we had to try the Sichuan Hotpot, so headed to a restaurant around the corner from our hotel. It was another fabulous meal and not as hot as most of us were expecting. 
We went for a walk after dinner and managed to see a tea ceremony being performed by a group of ladies outside a tea shop. The street looked very different all light up at night and we were glad we had headed out for the walk.
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