Giant Panda

The photos of pandas in this gallery were taken at the Panda Breeding Center, 10km north of Chengdu. This center has had quite some success breeding and housing Giant Pandas, such as the fellow pictured here.

Red Panda

The Breeding Center also houses and breeds the less well-known but similarly endangered Red Panda.

Red Panda

The Red Pandas were quite active on our visit, scurrying about their enclosure, playing together, and climbing trees.

Red Panda's tail

Here you can have a good look at the Red Panda's tail. Unfortunately, aside from habitat loss, hunting for fur puts pressure on the Red Panda population. The lovely tail is used to make wedding hats by some in the local population.

Red Panda munching an apple

Agatha holds a Red Panda, which is munching on a piece of apple.

Cute Red Panda

The Panda is as cute as a cuddly toy, isn't he?

Pandas

Unlike the very sleepy adults, these juveniles were quite active.

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Tourist-watching

Once playtime was over, these two pandas sat down together for a relaxing spot of bamboo-munching and tourist-watching.

Eating Panda

Thanks to their fantastically inefficient digestive tracts, giant pandas have to spend about 16 hours a day eating.

Eating Panda

When a Panda is not eating, it is likely sleeping...

Eating Panda

The Panda digestive tract is essentially that of a carnivore, and is not really adapted to the panda's almost exclusively bamboo diet. As such, the Panda's system cannot break down cellulose.

Pandas Eating

On top of the inefficient digestive system, both wild and captive pandas have serious nematodic parasite problems.

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Chengdu construction

In some places, Chengdu looks as if a war just ended. Many buildings are torn down by hand, without heavy machinery, which takes a while and leaves them in this war-like state while the work is going on.

Chengdu: view from hotel (pre-earthquake)

View from our hotel in Chengdu.

View from hotel (Chengdu)

View from our hotel in Chengdu. The smog was bad, but nowhere near as bad as in Chongqing.