Heritage Tour
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Tuesday, July 14, 2015 PANDAS Our final organized outing for the few of us remaining was a trip to Chengdu in the Sichuan Province to spend the day as a volunteer at the Wolong Panda Conservation and Research Center. The center is a research, breeding center, and reintroduction program for pandas in the Wolong Nature Reserve (200,000 hectares) which is protected as a national park. The only panda reserves in the world are in China and primarily in this region. While we were touring the reserve, we saw a short movie on their efforts to repopulate and reintroduce pandas in the wild. It was a fascinating video. I have to say it was not rated "G." Some of the younger kids in the group were a bit surprised by the use of panda porn to help the pandas mate. Google it, it's worth a Google. We did a variety of jobs as volunteers. They introduced us to the work day by starting us off cleaning out the panda's indoor living spaces which meant scooping poop and removing the uneaten parts of the bamboos stalks. We swept the work areas and prepared new bamboo food by moving young leaves and splitting massive bamboo stalks. Truly glamorous work, and I think the locals just wanted to put the tourists to work. The most meaningful task of the day was feeding the pandas. We finished off the day making panda bread which is like a cookie and is used by the keepers as a reward. Besides the standard black and white Giant Panda that everyone is familiar with, Wolong also had the smaller Red Panda at the Research Center. We were fortunate enough to see these pandas when they were frolicking and playing with each other. One of the ways the reserve raises funds is to charge a fee to sit with, and hug a panda. Let me tell ya sister, it aint cheep. Of course there was no getting out of there without letting the girls hug a panda! You can see them here sitting with the Pandas, eating their panda bread. Pandas are staggeringly adorable in every way. It was truly awesome and a privilege to spend the day so close to them. L-O-V-E!