First Published 27 July 2012

Because of flooding we didn’t go to the Wolong panda reserve today as planned. Instead we got a taxi to the panda breeding centre on the outskirts of Chengdu.

Our taxi driver was good. I liked his attitude to using the horn. At every and all opportunities. Beep beep beep. He used the horn instead of signalling, braking, using mirrors, and always used it when turning, slowing and continually when stopped. Actually he was quite a good driver.

We got to the panda reserve and it was a relief to be out of the city. Chengdu is busy and has a bit of a smog problem. To say there were a lot of scooters in Shanghai would be about right, but there are loads more in Chengdu. It’s mayhem.

We walked to the panda enclosures, which were all empty. We finally realised that all the pandas were inside and asleep. Because of the heat they had put all the pandas inside in the air conditioning – I don’t blame them.

Except the red pandas who are in fact clever enough to not die from heat exposure. Giant pandas who seem to be out to make themselves extinct. We watched a video, about how pandas are rubbish mothers, and they also need to be fed better food than simple bamboo, like apples and “panda cakes”.

The males also have to have training to use their back legs properly as otherwise they just don’t have the strength to get down to business when they have the 24-hour window of fertility that the females are in season each year. I could go on about how these animals are seem destined to become extinct but I won’t.

They are quite nice, towards the end of the day they did become more lively and the cubs were very playful. In my opinion their appeal comes from the fact that they look like teddy bears.

But let’s talk about red pandas. Not closely linked to giant pandas they are more akin to tree foxes. They have striped tails and they are cool. Their heads are large for their bodies and they have cute ears. I like them.

At around 5.16pm we’d had enough, and they seemed to be closing the park so we headed out to get some form of transport back to our hotel. It was another one of those chaotic Chinese moments. People, buses, lorries, cars, taxis, fake taxis and people trying to sell us panda merchandise all converged in one place. We got on a bus ….. we didn’t know where too but the driver and conductor seemed nice. We had fun.

The conductor seemed to be speaking to us, we just smiled and spoke back in English. But it seemed to work as we were told to get off the bus and someone told us which bus to get next.

Finally we ended up about half way home and at another bus station. We didn’t fancy getting two more buses as directed by the nice lady in the bus station. So were started trying to flag a taxi. The first one didn’t have a meter and wanted 100RMB. We walked away.

Then we could not get anyone to even consider taking us, just when we were about to get the bus, a taxi pulled up and we got into it. He had a meter and he was smoking a cigarette. His taxi had seat belts but there was no way to use them. Standard.

We finally got back to the hotel. Phew. It started raining and that means that it doesn’t smell so bad now, and it’s much cooler. Which is a relief.