Chengdu

After staying overnight in Golmud, we took a train to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, then another to Chengdu. We spent these two nights in relative comfort in sleeper cars, only lacking shower facilities. The lower altitudes starting from Golmud's 2800 m./9200 ft. down to Chengdu's 500 m./1640 ft. were very welcome.
We rested in Chengdu for 3 days, enjoying the great shopping and wonderful food. The goods were abundant, stylish and inexpensive; the food is considered among the very best in China. Indeed, every reasonable-looking restaurant we entered had extraordinarily delicious food at good prices. Chengdu enjoys a moist subtropical climate with almost perpetual cloudy days. The climate is responsible for its highly successful subtropical agriculture, as well as survival of the giant panda, one of the most endangered species in the world. We visited a panda breeding research center in a suburb of Chengdu, where these adorable creatures live amongst dense bamboo groves under careful human attention. However, the place is quite a bit warmer than their native habitat in the nearby high mountains from 2000 to 4000 m. (6500 to 13,000 ft.), which may explain why the pandas seemed so lazy.