Panda Love

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Today I held a baby panda! As I'm sure you can tell by the photo. Admittedly, he was more of a toddler panda, but he was in the baby panda section of the Panda Breeding Center, so I'm sticking with calling him a baby panda.

I woke up bright and early to meet a group of people I'd met last night at my hostel in lobby. We had decided to venture out on our own to the Panda Breeding Center rather than take the hostel's tour because we had Panda Cards and figured it would be cheaper. Panda Cards are a plastic card you buy for about Y1 and they get you in to numerous tourist attractions (the pandas, museums, historical sites, etc) for free or at a discount. Considering most of these places cost around Y50-60 to get into, that's a considerable savings.

We hailed a few cabs and headed out shortly before 8am. Panda feedings start at 9 and we didn't want to be late. After they eat, they nap so the viewing is supposed to be less exciting.

We made it with time to spare and raced across the grounds to the animal exhibits. Why they put them in the farthest corner of the park is beyond me. We found the red pandas (a closer relation to the raccoon than the bear) shortly before 9am, which is when they eat. As soon as the food came out, they apppeared in droves, flocking to the bowls. It was like watching a red raccoon army... except that they're called red pandas.

After we watched them devour their food we headed out. We had heard that the baby pandas got fed around 9:20 or so. When we got to their area, we saw them all lounging, some playing, some rough-housing with each other. I have never seen so many pandas. There had to be around 20 of them. One of them decided he was going to climb up on a wooden swing, then decided that wasn't high enough and kept climbing up to the wooden part that suspends the swing. Then we all watched in anticipation as he slowly tumbled down back to the ground. We all let out a collective, "ohhhh!!" only to realize that the panda wasn't hurt and we were gasping for no reason. He simply righted himself and walked away unphased. Another kept trying to come down from his perch by the "bridge" but couldn't quite seem to figure out how to do it and almost seemed to get stuck with every attempt. He simply couldn't figure out the fancy footwork required to climb down the ladder, and it left him with a perplexed look on his face.

At 9:20 they brought out the food and the pandas moved faster than I imagined they could, rolling and strolling toward the food, down ladders and trees, helping each other as they went. They always seem to be tumbling when they move.

At 9:30 our hostel guide (for the tour I wasn't actually on) helped me get in line to hold the baby panda. First I forked over more money than I care to admit, and then was ushered into a little room with the other future baby panda holders. I put on blue paper booties and awkward plastic gloves. They then helped me into a blue paper gown that closed slightly better than hospital gowns. They then brought out the panda. The keeper carried him under his shoulders and he stretched nearly to the floor. They plunked him into the first person's lap and gave the panda an apple slice and clicked away with the guy's camera. I went third.

The toddler panda weighed far less than I imagined he would. I sat down on the bench next to person #2 and the keeper hoisted him from her lap to mine. Suddenly there was this huge, fuzzy fluffy, black and white bear in my lap and I was so excited I almost didnt' know what to do. He sat calmly chewing his apple slice while letting me hug and squeeze and pet and examine him. I nuzzled his head a bit, too, which was divine. I was examining his right foot and he suddenly put his paw on my arm as if to stop me, but his arm stayed there. Interaction!! Then I started to play with his hand a bit and was just holding it, enjoying the bliss, and he decided to hold my hand back, causing me to nearly melt into the bench. All the while I kept reminding myself to look at the camera from time to time and once or twice they got the panda to look up as well. I was thrilled when they gave him a second apple slice so I could hold him a bit longer.

This was definitely 4 of the best minutes of my entire vacation.

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Photos

Red Pandas
Acutally, more closely related to the raccoon.

Toddler Panda
He looks like he needs some help, but he'll be fine.