BlogsA Panda Post In Honor Of The Massive Sichuan Earthquake
I was just reading about the massive 7.9 earthquake in China's Sichuan province with sadness, as it was centered near Chengdu and Wenchuan, where we spent some time this January.
The Sichuan province is a beautiful place full of fantastically interesting and neat things to do, see, and eat, but they are most famous for 2 things: very spicy food, and lots of pandas. We took a driver and guide about 5 hours outside of Chengdu to visit the Wolong Panda Research and Breeding Center and Panda Hospital, which houses about half of ALL the captive pandas in the world. The habitats are large and natural, and located in Wolong, up in the Sichuan mountains, which is the pandas' natural habitat. If you give a very large donation (around $135 per person, probably more with the dollar continuing to weaken) you can hang out with, hug, and (sort of) play with toddler pandas for about 3 minutes. So. Frickin. Worth it. Here are some photos I took of the pandas. And please give me some credit for successfully resisting the urge to use the term "panda-monium."
Pandas are like me- they love to eat. They do it all the time.
Fun fact: they eat other stuff besides bamboo, like carrots and other plants and vegetables. In Wolong, they make special extra-nutritious food called "panda cakes" for the young 'uns. Just like human toddlers, they are very messy.
The younger ones play and wrestle in a way that is sort of lumbering and clumsy and adorable.
This little guy had a swing he was super into.
Some of them like to climb trees, and it's pretty funny because they are really big compared to the trees so the trees move around a whole lot. They are not super graceful getting up there either. This panda had a really difficult time getting into a prime position. Lots of trial and error.
This is a really BIG panda at the top of a tree, just chilling.
China struggles mightily with tensions and discrimination between the many ethnic groups (not just the Tibetans) so they sometimes try to bridge the gap in amusing ways. In this case they have placed a very dramatic, imposing statue at the entrance to the Panda Hospital that depicts a Tibetan man, a Han doctor, and a Muslim girl all working together to rescue an injured baby panda.
If you want to see pictures of a baby panda's development, and learn more about pandas, check out this great pictorial post on TreeHugger that shows the first 3 months of a panda's life. They look so weird when they're little!
In conclusion, I'm slightly better than you because I've literally hugged a panda. Just kidding. They're actually really dirty and not as soft as you think. Still super awesome.
Related links:
The Sichuan province is a beautiful place full of fantastically interesting and neat things to do, see, and eat, but they are most famous for 2 things: very spicy food, and lots of pandas. We took a driver and guide about 5 hours outside of Chengdu to visit the Wolong Panda Research and Breeding Center and Panda Hospital, which houses about half of ALL the captive pandas in the world. The habitats are large and natural, and located in Wolong, up in the Sichuan mountains, which is the pandas' natural habitat. If you give a very large donation (around $135 per person, probably more with the dollar continuing to weaken) you can hang out with, hug, and (sort of) play with toddler pandas for about 3 minutes. So. Frickin. Worth it. Here are some photos I took of the pandas. And please give me some credit for successfully resisting the urge to use the term "panda-monium."
Pandas are like me- they love to eat. They do it all the time.
Fun fact: they eat other stuff besides bamboo, like carrots and other plants and vegetables. In Wolong, they make special extra-nutritious food called "panda cakes" for the young 'uns. Just like human toddlers, they are very messy.
The younger ones play and wrestle in a way that is sort of lumbering and clumsy and adorable.
This little guy had a swing he was super into.
Some of them like to climb trees, and it's pretty funny because they are really big compared to the trees so the trees move around a whole lot. They are not super graceful getting up there either. This panda had a really difficult time getting into a prime position. Lots of trial and error.
This is a really BIG panda at the top of a tree, just chilling.
China struggles mightily with tensions and discrimination between the many ethnic groups (not just the Tibetans) so they sometimes try to bridge the gap in amusing ways. In this case they have placed a very dramatic, imposing statue at the entrance to the Panda Hospital that depicts a Tibetan man, a Han doctor, and a Muslim girl all working together to rescue an injured baby panda.
If you want to see pictures of a baby panda's development, and learn more about pandas, check out this great pictorial post on TreeHugger that shows the first 3 months of a panda's life. They look so weird when they're little!
In conclusion, I'm slightly better than you because I've literally hugged a panda. Just kidding. They're actually really dirty and not as soft as you think. Still super awesome.
Related links:
- More China posts on this blog:
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