Chengdu Giant Panda Research Base
We had some friends in town recently, which provided the excuse we had been waiting for to stop acting like bored locals and start doing fun touristy things in Chengdu, again. A highlight was the Giant Panda Research Base, the leading panda breeding and preservation project, located within the city limits (not to be confused with the much larger, wilder Wolong Panda Refuge an hour or so outside of Chengdu proper).
The photos pretty much speak for themselves, although I will add that it was quite something to see three men in their 30s and 40s reduced to the kind of giggling wonder one sees in small children at their first trip to a zoo. Pandas are cute – there’s no way around it. Plus, you have to be careful when saying it in Chinese: get your tones wrong, and “giant panda” becomes “cat with big tits.”
I tried to grab one of the red ones and smuggle it out in my shirt, but was attacked by security guards at the exit. Alas.
Pandas are cute but I remember reading that they are dangerous and best cuddled in the stuffed version. Watch your tone when speaking about pandas in Chinese or you will sound like some of those signs in fractured English you send to us! Very humorous. Thanks.