Last time I came back to the States after being in China, a surprising number of times I was asked if I saw pandas. I hadn't. The only place in the whole world that wild pandas still exist is in the province of Sichuan. This time we live in Sichuan, so we decided we needed to see the pandas!
We went to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Pandas. Newly learned fact, there are only 1,600 wild pandas still in existence (as of 2004 which is last widely accepted data) and somewhere around 200 pandas in zoos and research facilities. Of those pandas, 88 are here in the Chengdu at the research center. The research center is about 200 acres of bamboo forest. It is beautiful!!
They have a few pandas for viewing in zoo like habitats, but mostly the pandas are in these huge, beautiful outdoor enclosures. You can walk so many paths through the bamboo forest looking through the trees to spot pandas.
We got to see this guy, my favorite panda, climb the trees and switch over from branch to branch. His name is Oreo. We saw so many pandas sitting around eating bamboo. They eat as much as 40 lbs of bamboo daily. We also got to see a toddler panda climbing up trees only to have his mama have to pull him down each time. I can see one of my little pandas doing that. :)
It was a LOT of walking! By the end of the day we were beat. They had a trolly that could take you around the park for 10 RMB (about $1.50), but our understanding was that it was an 1.5 hour ride that didn't stop. As it turns out, it is an 1.5 ride through the park, but you can get on and off as you chose. (Our chinese still a work in progress). If I had to do the day over again we would have taken the trolly. But the center was so clean and beautiful! On a cooler day without babies, the walk would have been really enjoyable. Emma got to see the pandas in style in the stroller with a fan.
Someone feeding the baby panda a bottle.
Philip feeding our baby panda a bottle, while waiting in line to see the baby pandas.
They also have red pandas and soon they will begin breading golden monkeys - both also endangered. I never realized how cute these guys were.
Bella's favorite parts of the day were the panda skeletons in the museum which she thought were dinosaur bones. She let out lots of big RAWRRs!! That girl is really into dinosaurs right now. And the coy fish pond. She also really loves fish. I think she would have been content to stay right here all day. I think our next outing might be to the aquarium.
And the day wouldn't be complete without Bella mooching a snack from new friends. Chinese people love to feed Bella girl and she loves to be fed.
One of the really nice part of the day was that Bella didn't feel like an exhibit. Its really common for our family to attract a lot of attention. In general, we don't mind. But sometimes it can be really frustrating because we want to enjoy what we came to see, not pose for pictures all day. However, at the park we weren't overwhelmed by people. I think mainly because we got to the park so early. Coming early was great. Way less crowded. Way less hot. And we got to see a LOT of pandas eating their breakfast.
It was a really fun day! If you are in the CD area, I highly recommend a visit to the Panda Research Center. We came home exhausted though! We ate a quick lunch and had a family nap time (yes, even mommy and daddy - thank you girls), and ended our day with watching Kung Fu Panda.
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