Well at first thoughts of traveling to Chengdu it seemed highly overrated! I mean a 32 hour train journey from Xian, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to go that much to see the Wolong International Panda Reserve and sanctuary. Honestly could it really be worthwhile?

Short answer YES! It was absolutely amazing to see Pandas in an almost real environment, they were extremely well looked after in their nature reserve. Unlike other relations in the Beijing Zoo where I have heard many stories of money being thrown at the animals to get a reaction!

I even got to hand feed some young Red Pandas, I even got to hold one. Normally I wouldn’t be up for this due to the welfare of the animals, but I was sterilised and basically couldn’t get them off me after feeding them apples. I had never seen a Chinese Red Panda before or even knew they had existed.

It was unbelievable to see a baby Giant Panda, they are tiny! I was told that if a human were to have a baby in the same proportion as the Giant Panda the child would fit in a match box! The baby is 1/100th of the size of the parent. But due to the small size of the infant it is quite common that the Panda accidently kills it. Most of these deaths are for the first infant as the Pandas are quite scared and do not know what has happened.

Anyway on the positive side latest scientific evidenece using DNA testing on Giant Panda poo in the wild has shown that there are greater numbers of Giant Pandas in existence than previously thought. Lets just hope that the fantastic Wolong Panda Reserve continues to help look after these amazing animals.

Giant Panda Photos