A little further we came to the nursery and saw behind glass the cutest 4 baby pandas in incubators. They were only a few months old and quite rare, since pandas don't breed well in captivity. One mother bear was also indoors to be closely monitored and got to nurse one of the cubs too. The ladies working there are sure very lucky to be feeding and cuddling those cute animals. After that we continued outside again to see the teenagers wake up for breakfast. Two of them were in a tree and two others on a bamboo platform. They were so amusing to watch since they play-fighting a lot, much like young puppies would do. They would also chase and create all sorts of havoc for the poor lady who was trying to feed them. I was laughing so hard when they fell on each other... Other visitors had joined us by now and there was a lot of camera and video activity. We spent another hour or so seeing here and there other pandas (even a raccoon-like red panda), before heading back to town. That has to be one of my favourite places in the world!
We came to Sichuan primarily to visit some Tibetan areas, but we had heard that Xiahe, in Gansu province, due north of Chengdu, was really worth visiting because of its active Tibetan monastery and the many pilgrims that come there. So after 2-3 days of relative comfort of the big city (Chengdu has 10 McDonald's restaurants!), we took another train trip to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu. But this time Mommy wanted to experience what a soft sleeper is like...