Pantastic

On the heels of my less than uplifting post a few days ago, I wanted to write about something that would no doubt bring a smile to everyone’s face. What better way to do that than to share my experience with PANDAS a few weeks ago.

We headed to Chengdu in Sichuan province, which is THE place to see pandas. For those who think pandas are everywhere in China, you are wrong. There are actually very few pandas left in the wild, and Sichuan province is where the most are found. Right outside of Chengdu there is a very well established breeding and research center for pandas. I love pandas so I was pretty excited to go to the research center and see these little fluff balls up close.

No one could have prepared me for just how adorable they were. The babies and cubs live in enclosures together, where they socialize, eat lots of bamboo and do cute panda things (like roll around and eat lots of bamboo). The adults are solitary animals, so they live in enclosures by themselves, but still manage to be irresistibly charming. The same behavior in humans, eating and sleeping all day would be considered lazy, but for pandas it is simply being adorable. I was very impressed with the habitats for the pandas, and it was clear they were very well cared for. All this was quite the opposite of what you usually see in terms of animal care in China. It was obvious that this research center was China’s animal show pony. I’ve seen pandas in zoos before but these cuddle magnets blew those other pandas out of the water. I was smitten.  I could not stop smiling and giggling. I felt like a little kid playing with baby pandas (close enough right….adult staring at baby pandas).

Enjoy the video below - Have a Pantastic Day :)