Chengdu

This was our hotel in Chengdu-kids room right next door-that became important in the middle of the night!

There was a long narrow bathroom behind the wall at the head of the beds

in room tea

more shots of the bathroom

This sign made me smile!

Pretty night time view of Chengdu-I took this before we went to bed and that night there was the LOUDEST thunderstorm I have ever heard in my life!  We thought surely 1 of the kids would wake up scared and screaming!  Greg and I took turns going out in the hall and listening at their door and I couldn't go to sleep listening for them so I finally went over and spent the rest of the night in their room.  I can't believe they slept through most of the storm. 

Below is the panda reserve we visited-it was really neat!

They divide the pandas up by age and they have very nice enclosures.  Only the little ones are inside.  Panda babies are born in the fall so we did not get to see any very small ones but watched a great movie about pandas and their development and saw the "nursery" and incubators they put the babies in-they look a lot like the one Ryan was in when he was first born.

They were fascinating to watch!

We thought this was a funny sign!

These are the 6-9 month old pandas inside a glassed in room that we got to see.  I met a family there from ALABAMA!  what a fun surprise!  Her husband does work with orphans in China and they were traveling with him.

Below are the red pandas

The adult pandas are in their own larger enclosures

We also got to feed some swans

Here is the restaurant at the panda center where we had lunch

Outside the restaurant-a finally goodbye picture with Toby, our tour guide.

We went to the airport to fly directly to Shanghai.  The rest of our group was taking a train and then getting on a boat to cruise on the Yangtze river and see 3 gorges dam but we decided not to do that part of the trip.  Below are some pictures on the way to the airport.

arriving at the airport.  One more city left in our tour!