Giant Pandas

What would be a visit to Chengdu, Panda City, without seeing pandas? We went to the Panda Breeding and Research Center to see some of the furry black and white creatures. We were lucky enough to see a whole bunch of them, mostly either eating or sleeping. It still surpries me, given their shape, how human-like some of their mannerisms are, like the way they lounge on their backs while eating. One panda liked to eat the stalks of his bamboo meal and would actually very efficiently peel the skin off before eating it.

One annoying thing is Chinese tourists. One woman threw something at a panda for not being active enough. She was about to throw a stick at another one before we stopped her. We were chatting with a researcher from the Atlanta Zoo (researching panda habits during the mating season) and she said that zoos are worse. At Chinese zoos you can see broken bottles and other trash in the animal pens.