Pandamonium

We've been in Chengdu in Sichuan (Mid-Western China) for nearly a week now. We're staying at a really nice place called Sim's Cozy Guesthouse.
The day after we arrived we went to visit the nearby panda research base, where they are captively breeding giant and red pandas to increase the numbers. We got to see the feeding time of the young cubs - about 12-18 months old. They charged out of their house and gobbled up their bowls of panda porridge, accompanied by a chorus of oohs and aahs and endless flashes of the spectators cameras. They really were very cute. We also got to see several older ones lounging about in trees or chewing bamboo in their enclosures. The base offered a chance to have your photo taken holding a panda, but at 100 pounds for five seconds, we didn't think it represented the best use of our funds so gave it a miss.
A few days ago we went to visit the world's biggest statue of Buddha - 71m high - at Leshan, a couple of hours south of Chengdu. He's carved out of the cliff face beside the river and you have to climb down an extremely steep staircase to get from his head to his feet (his big toe is bigger than a person). Very spectacular but busy with Chinese tourists trying to get photos with their arms outstretched to make it loook like they are pinching his nose.
From Leshan we caught the bus to Emei Shan, one of China's five sacred Buddhist mountains. We started our hike to the top that afternoon, climbing for two hours to one of the many temples on the mountain. We bunked overnight in a guesthouse (we were the only people there) and continued up the next day. It took us over 10 hours to reach the top. About 40km of very very steep steps cut into the cliffs and over waterfalls and rivers. The scenery is incredible but as you get towards the top the mist and clouds get thicker and thicker. There's a huge gold statue of four elephants at the summit, but by 5pm it was so shrouded in mist we couldn't see the top of it. We wanted to stay at the monastery at the summit but they weren't accepting guests at the time so we had to stay in a grotty overpriced hotel instead. Still, we thought the sunrise from the summit would make up for it. Unfortunately however, the clouds from the day before remained, though not as thick, and we didn't get to see the famous sunrise (apparently you are lucky if you do see it). At one point while waiting for the sun we heard people waiting higher up the viewing platform whooping and cheering. We thought the sun had made an appearance, but it was only a couple of Amercian jocks standing on a boulder with no shirts on, striking macho poses and telling the crowd they loved them. It was cringy but funny. Despite there being no sun at least we got to see the mountian top temples in all their glory and had the feeling of satisfaction at having made it up the 3000m climb. To save our legs we caught the bus back down (there's a road that goes most of the way up the back for lazy pilgrims).
We're heading north to Xian tomorrow to see the Army of Terracotta Warriors, and then on to Beijing and Mongolia.