A Baby Panda in China

A Baby Panda in China

When you tell someone you’re going to China, they always ask about two things: pandas and egg rolls. Turns out that?egg rolls were most likely invented in New York City ?and are practically impossible to explore anywhere in China. However, panda bears are domestic to?south central China ?and there was zero chance that I was going to miss up an opportunity to hold up a baby panda bear.

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There is literally one place in the entire nation where you can hold a baby panda bear and it’s at?Panda Base and Center for Disease Contro l which is three hours outside of?Chengdu, China . Chengdu, a four hour plane ride from Shanghai, is the real capital of Sichuan Province. It’s basically known for incredibly spicy meal and being the birth place of Po, the panda bear from?Kung Fu Panda .

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I booked a flight to Chengdu on?for $70 roundtrip. Everything that a luxury airline is, Spring Airlines is not that. Spring Airlines is a lower-cost, no-frills private airline based out of Shanghai. Imagine boarding an airplane to an instrumental version of?Oh! Susanna ?on repeat, having no legroom, and only a backpack as you can only have a single carry-on without paying extra. That’s Spring Airlines.

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What the airline lacks in luxury, it makes up for in character. On each single Spring Airline flight I have ever taken, I made buds with the passengers sitting next to me. Despite not sharing a language, they were always keen to share their food, music, or technology with me.

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There are multiple panda bases around Chengdu. At the time of this blog post, there is only one that permit you volunteer as a “Panda Keeper” and actually hold a baby panda. Make certain you arrange with?Dujiangyan Panda Base and Center for Disease Contro l to get the full experience.

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To get to and from the base, I hired?Leon to pick us up at our hotel, drive to the pandas, and to a few attractions around Chengdu. Leon charged about $100 for an entire day of being a tour guide. It is possible to get to the base utilizing public transportation. As anyone who has attempted to apply a bus system in a language they don’t speak can attest, it’s a risky endeavor that needs substantial extra time and planning. I didn’t need to waste any time and Leon was a fun human to spend the day with.

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It’s significant to arrive at the base when it opens (around 8am) as that’s when the panda bears are most active. For 700 Chinese Yuan or about $100, the base permits you to be a “Panda Keeper for the Day”. The base staff go all out to offer you with an amazing experience and really commits to treat you as if you are an actual zookeeper. You’ll be given a zookeeper coverall (which makes for good pictures) and given a private tour of the base. The pandas are the cutest stuff you will ever see, you’ll take too many images, and never need to leave.

After the private tour, you will be taken to clean the panda cages. When you clean up Panda poop for a hour is when you decide that you’re glad you’re not actually a zookeeper. It’s also when you wonder why you are paying $100 to clean up Panda poop. Once you get to feed the panda bears bamboo shoots, you forget about cleaning the cages and begin calculating if you have the finances to stay at the base forever. You also get fed lunch, shown a documentary, and taught how to make panda food.

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The highlight of the day and possibly the best moment of my life is when I got to cuddle a baby panda bear. The experience is not at all cheap. It costs about $350 to cuddle a baby panda for about 60 seconds. It is worth every penny. There is literally no other place where you can wrap your arm around the cutest creature in the nation and get the best profile picture of all time. The money also helps Panda conservation efforts. It’s a win-win and you will not regret it.

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The first tourist spot we were brought to in our 6 Day tour of Jiuzhaigou is the Chengdu Giant Panda Research Center. I have been to many zoos and the first Panda I saw was in Washington D.C. Zoo. She was the star of the zoo and a lot of mails from children all over the United States writes to her. It seems a Panda projects warmth, cuddliness and gentility such that children and even adults gravitates to this sweet animal. It has also become famous being in the insignia an logo of WWF. World Wildflife Fund, an organization for the protection of the endangered animals of the world. Upon alighting from the bus, we had to walk nearly 200 meters to ride a shuttle within the grounds of the zoo. Then we traverse the path of various panda breeding grounds. They were all in their natural habitat and the tourists oogle at these wonderful creatures...either eating their favorite bamboo sticks, hanging on a wispy limb of a tree or just sauntering around the underbush. I will never forget the red panda...which looks like a fox actually. We saw lots of them nearly 40 of them in various ages. There were even two panda babies in a crib newly born of about two months or so. For the lovers of nature and animals, going to this center will leave in you an indelible mark of wonder and beauty for such heavenly creatures.

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Once inside the enclosure of one of these cute creatures, with a specially prepared bowl of food, you will have the opportunity to feed them by hand.?Our keeper will tell you about the characteristics of each of our Pandas along with information about the species and the conservation work being done to protect them.