Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan Province in China. The main reason to come to Chengdu is to visit the Panda Sanctuary or go on to holy mountain of Emeishan, to Tibet or via Leshan and the giant Buddha Dafo to the Yangtze river.

One of the lovely things to do in Chengdu is to 'sit back and sip some tea'. The temples in the town's centre have lovely tea houses attached. You can enjoy some of their lovely jasmine teas and watch locals play chess. You can also walk the back streets of this town and see the real china.

The Panda Sanctuary : http://www.panda.org.cn/english/visit/9.htm is open from 8am to 6pm every day of the year and is home to about 60 pandas. It is best to visit in the morning as Pandas are rather lazy and you might see a little more action in the morning. One of the owners of 50 Degrees North was lucky enough to see twin pandas just born during a visit.