We departed Lhasa, Tibet, the morning of October 4, 2004, for a short flight back to Chengdu where we visited The Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center which is located about six miles out of the lovely city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. This very large facility replicates the natural habitat of the giant Panda and is dedicated to preserving and increasing its population. We were able to get real close up to some pandas and photograph them as well as the so called lesser red pandas which really look and act like racoons. Naturally, Ginger bought several stuffed pandas of various sizes. It was a great visit.