Hadley
Freeman meets the black-and-white celebrities at the famous panda research base
in Chengdu, south-west China
The Guardian, Hadley Freeman, Saturday 3 May 2014
Late last year, I found myself waiting on a bench, waiting for my date. I'd been excited about this meeting for weeks, telling all my friends about it ever since it was confirmed. Really, I'd been waiting for this all my adult life. But what, I suddenly worried, if he doesn't like me? I shuffled nervously in my plastic blue scrubs and then the door opened and a woman beckoned me in. He was ready to see me.
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| Giant panda in Chengdu panda research base, Sichuan, China. Photograph: Alamy |
Late last year, I found myself waiting on a bench, waiting for my date. I'd been excited about this meeting for weeks, telling all my friends about it ever since it was confirmed. Really, I'd been waiting for this all my adult life. But what, I suddenly worried, if he doesn't like me? I shuffled nervously in my plastic blue scrubs and then the door opened and a woman beckoned me in. He was ready to see me.
I should
probably admit at this point that I was not having a romantic assignation; I
was not even waiting for another human being. Rather, I was at the Chengdu
panda research base in central China, which is also known as the holy land
among panda fans.
And pandas
do have a huge fan base: a Youtube video of pandas on a slide has, at time of
writing, attracted more than 6.3m views since it was posted 18 months ago
(cannily, it's entitled, "Cute pandas playing on the slide").
The 2004
film Anchorman satirised TV stations' fondness for furry black-and-white
audience pleasers when it had local newscaster Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) sent
out on what the station calls Panda Watch! "Great story – compelling and
rich," Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) muses in response to Fantana's latest
Panda Watch report. When I saw the film at the cinema, everyone in the audience
laughed at that point. I, on the other hand, made a mental note to ask my
editor for a Panda Watch assignment. Just under a decade later, she finally
sent me.
Admittedly,
there are many things to do in Chengdu besides look at pandas. Set on the
western edge of the Sichuan Basin, Chengdu is a thriving, but pretty, megacity,
where tourist attractions alternate between the very old (the beautiful Wenshu
Buddhist monastery) and the ultra-modern (the New Century Global Centre, the
world's largest building by floor area). While the city has long been known for
its tea houses, and for food carts selling dishes spiced with the region's
famous red peppercorns, it is also now the place where two-thirds of world's
iPhones and 20% of the world's computers are made.
But I'm
afraid there was only one statistic that really interested me about Chengdu:
80% of the world's pandas live in Sichuan province. The Chengdu Panda Base, one
of the best-known and respected panda conservation centres in the world, comes
with some pleasing statistics of its own: it currently houses more than 80
pandas and is a mere six miles from downtown Chengdu. I did feel a twinge of
guilt as my plane swooped in to land, wondering what it said about me that I
really didn't care the least bit about the culture, religion or food – I just
wanted to see some cuddly pandas. But seeing as my plane had a giant panda face
painted on the nose (well-played, BA!) and the city itself was bedecked with
panda tat, I decided to stop worrying and enjoy panda mecca.
Chengdu Panda Base turned out to be, much to my relief, nothing like a zoo. The pandas have 240-odd hectares (600 acres) of parkland in which to scamper. And while the centre is very much a tourist destination (don't go on a national holiday or you will find yourself fighting for space with what seems like the rest of China), it is primarily a conservation and breeding centre. The pandas I saw, mostly black and white ones but some little red ones, too, all looked well cared-for, plump and relaxed, happily playing with members of staff (another tip: go in the morning to see the feeding).
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| Hadley with ‘her’ panda. Photograph: Hadley Freeman |
Chengdu Panda Base turned out to be, much to my relief, nothing like a zoo. The pandas have 240-odd hectares (600 acres) of parkland in which to scamper. And while the centre is very much a tourist destination (don't go on a national holiday or you will find yourself fighting for space with what seems like the rest of China), it is primarily a conservation and breeding centre. The pandas I saw, mostly black and white ones but some little red ones, too, all looked well cared-for, plump and relaxed, happily playing with members of staff (another tip: go in the morning to see the feeding).
After
watching the bears loll around and lumber about – and those do seem to be the
two main forms of panda action – I joined the long but fast-moving queue to
peer into the nursery at the litter of three-week-old cubs. Lying in their cot,
they were so small and sweet I had to shove my hands in my pockets to stop
myself stealing one.
Just next
to the main enclosure is a little villa where, for a fairly hefty fee (about
£95) you can hold a panda. As far as I know, this is the only place in the
world where you can do this: I would have paid three times that. The
one-year-old I already thought of as "my panda" was sitting on a
wooden bench, like a small round emperor upon a throne, chewing on bamboo. I
nervously sat down and immediately felt his heft and warmth as he leaned up
against me. He continued to munch his bamboo thoughtfully and soon turned slowly,
sweetly towards me and I looked into his panda face. We had our moment. I had
my Panda Watch. And, as an experience, it was more than compelling and rich.
• The trip
was provided by British Airways (0844 493 0787, ba.com), which has a four-night
trip to Chengdu, including direct flights from Heathrow and B&B
accommodation at the five-star Shangri-La Hotel
(shangri-la.com/en/chengdu/shangrila), from £979pp. Entry to the Chengdu panda
base (panda.org.cn) costs about £5.50
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