Meeting China's most beloved animal
The giant panda is China's most beloved animal and a global symbol of wildlife conservation. Native to the bamboo forests of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu, fewer than 2,000 pandas live in the wild today, and China has built a network of reserves and breeding centers to protect them.
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, just outside Sichuan's capital, is the best place in the world to see pandas up close. Morning visits reward visitors with active pandas — cubs tumbling in their playpens, adults munching bamboo, and red pandas scurrying through the trees.
Beyond the panda parks, the wild bamboo mountains of Wolong and the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries offer a glimpse of the panda's natural habitat. Watching these gentle giants — so clumsy on land yet so graceful in character — is an experience that stays with you forever.
