Why Chengdu means pandas
Picture this: you walk through the gate at half past seven, the morning air still cool, a thin mist hanging over the bamboo. Round the first bend and there they are — four or five round giant panda cubs sitting in a heap, clutching bamboo stalks and chewing with total commitment. One rolls onto its back; another has hauled itself up into the fork of a tree to sleep. This is the moment the whole crowd goes quiet at once, because everyone is staring at the same thing.
This is the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (成都大熊猫繁育研究基地) — one of the largest and most important giant panda breeding and research centres anywhere, set in the northern suburbs of Chengdu. Founded in 1987 with just six rescued pandas, it is now home to dozens of giant pandas across grounds of bamboo and lakes designed to mimic their natural habitat as closely as a city facility can.
What sets it apart from seeing a panda in an ordinary zoo is the range: you see pandas at every life stage, from pink newborn cubs in the incubators of the nursery to fully grown adults in open enclosures. And the part many people do not expect — the base also has red pandas, small russet-coloured animals that wander along raised wooden boardwalks, sometimes within arm's reach of visitors.
