Our flight from Beijing was PACKED. I have never seen an airport so busy at 5:00AM. Travel during the Chinese New Year tries your patience as the lines to do anything are so long.
But, we made it to Chengdu. Our health is at . . . lets say 
83.2% – good, then bad, then good again. I think it may be a while before we are completely free from this bug.
Chengdu is best known for the Chengdu Giant Panda Research and Breeding Center. The Giant Panda has come to symbolize vulnerable species world-wide with only approximately 1,864 Giant Pandas left in the wild and only 266 living in captivity. Of these 266 in captivity – over half are at the Panda Breeding Center in Chengdu.
It was fun to watch the Giant Pandas eat, play and hang in the trees. The center was flooded with people. There is a lot of pushing and shoving to see the pandas up close as well as to make your way through the park. We learned to be more aggressive in order to make the most of our visit.
Along with the Giant Pandas the park is home to several Red Pandas. They are closely related to raccoons not bears, like the Giant Pandas. Both animals are native to the same areas of the world and both have bamboo as the main part of their diet.
Once we completed a trip through the whole park and had our fill of all the people, we took a shuttle and then the metro back to the old part of the city.
While in Chengdu, we were able to go to one 
of the Temple Fairs on the last day of the New Year. Talk about crowds!!! The fair had wonderful lanterns, lights and great people watching. We were very happy to join in a bit of the New Year’s celebrations after all.
We were fortunate enough to be able to attend a Chinese Sichuan Opera. The Sichuan Opera is a composite performance of many art forms, music, dance, comedy and drama.
Our time in Chengdu and China had to come to an end so we are off to Bangkok, Thailand for some much needed warmth and hopefully be able to kill this bug that has been bothering us for over a week.