A drive of 131 miles through the Qingling mountains took us to the small town of Foping. The road from Xi’an to Chengdu has 137 tunnels of varying length throuh the mountains which consist of almost vertical densely-wooded ranges and deep gorges. The old road can be frequently seen in the valley below the motorway.
Foping is a Buddhist town, and the name means “Buddhist grassland”. A recently-built panda research centre and wildlife reserve is located there. Full of plastic pandas, it looks a bit naff, but an electric car takes tourists deep into the mountains where some beautiful golden monkeys (one of China’s most endangered species) can be seen. We enjoyed watching them. The reserve has wild pandas but we didn’t see any, only a panda in an enclosure. After rolling over for our benefit it turned its back on us and went to sleep. Green cooked us a Chinese meal in the evening at a guesthouse where she stayed and we slept in our vans for free.
