Chengdu News

By Yao Siyan

BEIJING, June 11 -- Within weeks, two young panda cubs will make their public debut at Hong Kong's Ocean Park resort, a gift from the mainland to celebrate the city's return to the motherland. Crowds of admirers will greet them and they themselves can be forgiven if they look a little startled by all the attention they receive.

Le Le and Ying Ying have come a fairly long way from their native Sichuan, especially so after several months in quarantine.

But they will have at least been a little prepared for their reception as the province's capital, Chengdu, has been gearing up its tourism market for people who want to see the cute, apparently cuddly creatures close-up.

Giant pandas have indeed made headlines recently, not least because of their high-profile endangered species status. But with a tourist in Germany deciding, drunkenly he would like to cuddle one at a zoo and finding they can also bite and claw, and sadly more recently, the death of Xiang Xiang, the first captive-bred animal to be released into the wild, their plight has received even more attention.

Such attention is now putting Chengdu firmly on people's "must-visit" cities in China - unlike five years ago on my first visit to the country when the pre-dammed Three Gorges was the "highlight."

And the city and its star attractions do not let you down - if local tourism services have yet to completely fit the bill.

Regular flights leave Shenzhen for the city two hours away, (preferable to the more awesome 30 hours by train from Guangzhou).

Modern star-rated hotels abound but for character we stayed with one of Chengdu's leading travel agents, Dreams Travel, and its own Wenjun Mansion on the kitsch "restored" Qintai Road, a mock ancient street full of tourist-traps of jewelry shops and hotpot restaurants.

The hotel itself though offers everything from 60-yuan dorm beds to Chinese or Western-style suites which can easily accommodate a family of four for around 480 yuan a night. Buffet breakfast is available in the attractive courtyard for 15 yuan per head. Rooms have wi-fi and computers are also available in reception.

Its prices certainly belie the comfort and convenience - Chengdu's central Tianfu Square, overlooked by a huge white marble statue of Chairman Mao and the city's science and technology college, is a 20-minute walk or short bus ride away.

Wenjun Mansion itself was on this visit, Dreams Travel's best offering as, despite advance booking by e-mail, requests had somehow got lost in the ether.

Our plan was to go to the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve high in the mountains but despite hiring a car and driver from Dreams Travel, with little warning - after a three-hour drive - the one single-track road there was shut for 12 hours at a time each way, which Dreams should certainly have been aware of, and we had to return frustrated.

Instead we made do with enjoying a couple of hours exploring the expanse of the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base eight kilometers outside the city which in itself provides more than an opportunity of seeing dozens of giant pandas at their best in a semi-natural wild environment.

This was my second visit within a year and a lot of development has been taking place to upgrade facilities including its museum (with an unnerving picture of Britain's outgoing Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott holding a baby panda on his visit; photographs of artificial breeding techniques and even "panda porn" to encourage the males to mate. I hope these are all unrelated.)

Better to wander round the large enclaves (you are separated by a fence and moat) where the bear-cats themselves play and eat - get there early before the food and humidity gets to them - in trees, on swings, in pools or just sit chomping their way through piles of their favorite adopted diet, bamboo. If you do see them sleep, you'll be amazed at the positions in which they can do so - even upside down in trees - limbs akimbo.

Here the pandas do perform for the visitors and despite their ungainly size, when awake they bound about with hardly a care in the world helped probably that even during the May Day golden week holiday the crowds were not overwhelming.

Adults and older cubs can be seen outside but within the "kindergarten" even smaller bundles of black and white fur are being weaned - and not to my taste, offered as photo opportunities for visitors wanting to hold them. Another tourist made headlines again earlier this year when she had the top of her finger bitten off in one such incident and as we watched a Japanese tourist could either have lost her hat or an ear if a keeper hadn't stepped in.

Regardless of the risk to humans though, it is hardly preparation for the wild which the project claims to be promoting. Such issues aside, the center is undoubtedly doing all it can to save the species, in the best surroundings it can offer and yes it does need tourists to boost its income.

For now it seems there is space and time for you to watch and photograph them for hours at your leisure but as with any tourist destination - it will get busier. Not least because Chengdu has this year launched a new tourist bus - 902 - to the base from the city center which saves the cost and expands the limited time of an organized tour - normally offered at a premium by all hotels and travel agents.

We can only hope that Chengdu achieves a balance between its continuing breeding program to protect the species - without adding too much pressure on their environment from over exposure to a demanding public. As in the tourism industry worldwide, whether it is the promotion of landscapes, historic buildings or wildlife - that is the difficulty.