Day 17: OMG PANDAS

Pandas!!!! Yes today was the day we visited the world renowned Panda research center in Chengdu. There are less than 2,000 panda’s in the world, most of which live in the Chengdu province. The research center has over 100, including 26 that are on loan to other zoos around the world. China will not export panda’s but you can rent one for $2 million dollars per year!

Pandas in Chengdu

They are the most adorable creatures, they’re like giant teddy bears. They’re huge and fuzzy and they roll around and it’s so cute. They were really active when we were there, some of them were hanging out in the trees and some were playing together, lots were eating. It was really interesting to watch them eat, they eat bamboo which is actually not very filling or even very nutritious for them but that’s what they eat. They strip it like a banana to get the outer layer off then eat the inner part. Apparently in the spring some of the females will fake being pregnant so they can get the better food. When pandas are born they’re about the size of a mouse so it’s really hard to tell when a female is pregnant or not. The Mom will stay with the baby for a year and a half until she lets it out on its own. Generally pandas are solitary creatures.

We had the opportunity to hold a baby panda. You got about 5 minutes to play with it and hold it and they would give you a commemorative T-shirt and pictures of your time together. But first you had to make a 1300yuan donation to the research center. About the same as $200. Pandas were cute buuuut I’m okay without the Tshirt, Kthxbye. That money went towards good use though, that place had the best bathroom of the entire trip, it had those super computer toilets, soft toilet paper and the place was actually clean. We also saw other western tourists which was something we actually didn’t see often.

We had sandwiches for lunch, which were heavenly, and after the panda center we were exploited at another factory that did both silk AND embroidery this time. We ended the day with a visit to a lovely city garden which boasted containing several hundred varieties of bamboo. I picked out about four and after that they all looked the same.