Pandas, Pandas Everywhere

Early morning on our second day, We set off with our little entourage to the Chengdu Panda Breeding Reserve in the northern suburbs of Chengdu.

After walking about a mile uphill in the stifling heat, we stopped at the Panda Kitchen to learn a little about their diets.  As we hear more about pandas, it's a wonder that there are any left in the world these days, after learning about their picky eating habits and impossibly small procreation windows!  There are around 200 pandas in captivity (about 87 at this particular preserve although only 60 on premise since many are loaned out to zoos around the world) and an estimated total population of around 2,000.

We then went to one of the enclosures, quartered a handful of apples and fed some pandas!  We first had to put on these goofy blue robes and shoe covers, carefully spear the apple onto the end of a 7-8 foot long bamboo pole and dangle it in front of a panda, making sure to only give it the apple after it stood up on its hind legs.  They are truly adorable animals, the black and white faces, and the cutest ears.  And greedy.  And super lazy (though this is more understandable given the heat).  And they make little growly noises when they want more apples!

Then we walked over to another area of the park to have our picture taken with a 10 month old baby panda.  This was the highlight of Mei's trip although it was all a bit rushed and they were very nervous about panda handling - smearing the little panda's paws with honey to keep it distracted as the photos were being taken!  That little panda was heavy!

We wandered around a few more enclosures, visiting a playful group of 5 young pandas and also saw a lot of red pandas, which looked a lot more like red raccoons with long striped tails.  And watched a movie about panda breeding - newborn babies are pink, hairless and generally creepy looking!

 

We were a little panda-ed out but still managed to buy countless little panda knick-knacks on our way back to our little bus.