Pandas

Giant Panda eating. All are my photos
The most iconic animal in the world has to be giant panda. The beautiful black and white friendly looking bear has been the inspiration for many a stuffed toy.  This incredibly beautify animal is also the "poster child" for the world wildlife fund. At one stage, giant pandas were very high on the endangered species list due to habitat destruction in their native range in China. The very good news is that recently, they have been removed from the endangered list. This is totally due to the efforts of the Chinese to save this amazing animal through captive breeding facilities. The centre for Panda breeding and also the last remaining area of the natural habitat is in and around Chengdu in China.

An animal which is very high on my "animal wish list" is, of course, the giant panda. So, on one of my trips to China, I mentioned to the very nice host of my visit that I wanted to go to Chengdu to visit the panda breeding site. So when I arranged my flights I included a trip to Chengdu after the work part of my trip. I always try to take a few days off after the work commitments when travelling internationally. Normally there is very little time to do anything other than work on a work trip, so a few days off is a good idea. When I arrived in China my host informed that they had arranged everything for my visit to Chengdu. Really very, very kind. One of the researchers at the Institute I was visiting had a family member in Chengdu who could speak English, and it had been arranged that she would be my tour guide while I was there. It is essential to have someone in China to look after you. There are very few people in China who can speak English.

Panda Breeding Centre
So off to Chengdu I went. I was met at the airport by my unofficial tour guide and she really looked after me well. They had booked a nice hotel for me and she arranged all of the transport in taxis. I did not have very long in the area, but I also managed to visit the old city which was great.


The day to visit the Panda Breeding centre arrived. There were hundreds of people waiting to get tickets. I was pretty much the only foreigner in the crowd. She went off and got my ticket so off to look for Pandas we went. I had seen a Giant Panda before in a zoo in Paris and also in the zoo in Beijing. In both of these experiences the Panda had been sleeping and pretty much did nothing. I was a bit worried that this would be another "zoo experience". Boy was I wrong! The enclosures are massive with a lot of natural vegetation. The first Panda was pretty much doing what the other had been doing. Lying sleeping. But he did start to move around a bit, to great cheers from the massive number of people watching him. This seemed to wake him up a bit. There were hundreds of people there. Lots and lots of Chinese all trying to get a glimpse of the Giant Panda. This, to me was almost more amazing then seeing the Pandas. The fact that the Chinese were so interested in this beautiful animal made me feel confident about the future of the Giant Panda.


Baby in a tree

In the next enclosure, there were five of six young Pandas. Just like typical youngsters, they were full of energy and were climbing around in the trees. A really great experience.

There were very look lines to get a glimpse of a very young (newborn) Panda baby. I did not wait in that line. Instead I moved on to the next enclosure where a adult Panda was eating some Bamboo. This was, without doubt, the highlight of my visit. The perfect Panda pose. It really is a magnificent animal.

Beautify little Lesser Panda
There are also lesser Pandas at the breeding centre. They are not as threatened as the giant Panda, but they are, nevertheless, very beautiful little animals.

Babies at play

This was a great trip and seeing these beautiful animals in an environment which is as close as I am likely to get to seeing them in nature was a very big tick on my bucket list. The most exciting aspect of this visit was how big the breeding centre is and how enthusiastic the many hundreds, if not thousands of Chinese visitors to the centre were about seeing a Giant Panda. They have fully laid claim to this iconic animal and will ensure its survival.   

Must be the most beautiful animal on earth

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