Although yesterday was my favorite part of our whole trip, the reason we chose to come to Sichuan Province was because of the pandas.  Sichuan Province is THE place to come in China if you want to see pandas up close.  Panda is Chinese is 熊猫 (xiong mao), which translates to bear cat!  They are lazy, goofy creatures but a blast to watch!

Our third hostel we stayed at was called LazyBones and provided us with the transportation and tour of Chengdu’s panda center.  This served not only as a tourist destination but also a research center for scientists to learn more about panda behavior and reproduction.

First and foremost, this panda center was incredible.  The area was overflowing with flowers and bamboo while the facilities were top notch.  It was very obvious that this place was a point of pride for China!

As we walked further and further into the park we finally saw some adult pandas! They were huge and were eating up a storm! Pandas eat for 16 out of the 24 hours of the day.  However, they also seemed very playful!

Most the pandas were very social with one another. If they weren’t eating, they were rolling around on top of each other!

Our guide took us into a small building and showed us baby pandas.  These were only a month old! We even saw the caregiver feed and burp a panda.  I took a video of it and will post it to my blog later.

 

By visiting the panda center, I learned a lot more about them.  However, I found it peculiar they kept referring to pandas as “born survivors.” Pandas seem to have made their own living conditions difficult by themselves.  First, I learned that a panda’s digestive system was made for them to be carnivorous.  Although I was not able to understand why, pandas chose not to eat meat but bamboo.  I think this is strange because their body has a difficult time digesting bamboo, hence them eating for 16 hours a day.  Yet, pandas don’t just eat any bamboo.  Apparently they prefer this very specific species of bamboo which is constantly on the verge of extinction.  The center we were at was only able to grow 1/4 of the bamboo needed to feed all the pandas.  The center must rely on locals to grow and ship it to them to keep up with the demand.

Pandas are also incredibly lazy and must be pushed to reproduce.  This center has been experimenting with ways in which they can assist the pandas to successfully reproduce.  But even then, mother pandas don’t always know what to do with their offspring.  We watched a short documentary of a panda who just gave birth and not 20 seconds later bat the new born across the room because it didn’t understand what it was/what it was supposed to do with it.  And on top of that, all pandas are born pre-mature.  Again, I have no idea what the evolutionary advantage is to that but pandas are not making life any easier on themselves.  The good news is that once the little panda bears are bigger the mothers instinct to care for them seems to kick in.

The only fact I learned which supports the crazy idea that pandas are “born survivors” is that most species lifespan is 5 million years.  Pandas have existed for 8 million.

The panda center was really nice and the pandas were definitely enjoying themselves! We quickly walked pass the pandas’ summer housing.  I thought this was quite amusing because it looks like a torture cell.  However, we were assured that when the pandas are in their summer quarters the area was filled with natural surroundings.  I believe this because China is very strict on AC usage.  Many households in southern China (same latitude as Florida) do not have AC at all.  In the shadows of the right hand corner of this picture are 8 separate AC units.  These pandas are living the life!

Lastly, we got to get up close to a red panda.  It was just sitting on the deck enjoying its morning! Fun Fact: The red panda was discovered 44 years before the panda we know and love today.  The red panda was originally called a panda.  The name was switched after we discovered the black and white pandas.

The center did have fences in the red panda zone but all the fences had nice big holes in them so they could move around freely.  I thought that was a nice touch!

Getting up close to real adult and baby pandas was unforgettable.  It was a nice way to wrap up our trip to Sichuan Province.  I already miss the city of Chengdu and the experiences I gained from there.