On the way back to Beijing, I stopped in Chengdu for 24h to see the pandas…
Giant pandas are endangered, mostly because of habitat destruction, and there are active attempts to breed them in captivity. Chengdu is home to the research centre where most of this takes place.
Now that I’ve seen them, I think the biggest problem with giant pandas is that they’re depressed. They sit around all day doing nothing, it’s hard to interest them in mating, they only eat a food (bamboo) that they can’t properly digest… I think the researchers should add some prozac to their bamboo and see what happens!
…or not.
(I was in Chengdu on June 20. I’m currently in Irkutsk.. it’s not just a place in Risk!)