Click here to read Day Three...

Day four of Radio86's mission to Chengdu has taught me the emotional power of one five-word sentence. It is a combination of words that can instantly damage relations between a loving father and his son, fracture long friendships and fill respected colleagues with poisonous envy.

What five short words, pieced together, to simply explain one moment of a day can cause such a reaction? Well, brace yourself: I hugged a baby panda.

How do you feel? Yeah, I know, I know. Do you want to know what that experience was like or have you already sworn at the screen and clicked the Back button? I guess if you are still reading then you are just a glutton for punishment because I am about to begin...

It was second only to the birth of my daughters and, even then, it is a rather close call. I was tempted to man-this-up, get all gruff and testosterone on you, but I have to be honest and lay those masculine feelings out on the table.

As I sat with my arm around the slumped mass of black and white cuteness named Yuan Lin my brain struggled to handle the intimate moment. Me. China. Baby Giant Panda. Hugging... no, let's try and process that one again.

This may be cliché, which I despise, but you are really lost in the moment. Pandas are, without any argument, the cutest animal on the face of this planet and to be sat beside one of the babies of this incredibly rare species was almost too much.

After the nine month-old panda had been taken back to his enclosure and I returned to the sunshine outside world, I needed a moment to keep my emotions in check – I didn't want tears staining my Radio86 t-shirt.

A few deep breaths later I had managed to create a look on my face that some may describe as smug. I walked around the rest of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding looking at the other visitors knowing that they would only experience pandas by watching them in their enclosure and through glass. The smug grin is still here hours later and, if you ask nicely when I get home, I'll show it to you.

It isn't often that I am overwhelmed by a moment and I will treasure those few minutes forever.

P.S: No, a panda didn't eat me, but he certainly did something.

Click here to read Day Five...

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