The Tao of the Lazy Panda.

Still in the Sichuan province, today – a continuation of my travel notes therefrom…

But first – a question to the audience: what do Russia and China have in common?

No – “nothing” is the wrong answer ).

Anyone?…

Well, first of all they have a shared border!

But more importantly (and much, much more seriously) – both Russia and China have the same national symbol: bears! Russia’s is the brown bear; China’s is the panda (full name – the giant panda), which is a species of the bear.

The panda is undeniably cute (but you know that). It’s also just unbelievably lazy. Move over sloths!

Seeing a panda actively doing most anything at all is a real rarity. Even if a baby panda like this one is just sitting in a tree and looking around – it counts as an active phase :o) ->

For the most part, pandas are usually asleep. Real long sleeps – and in all sorts of poses:

Since it’s hot season here in Sichuan, most adult pandas were hiding in their enclosures, while only the little ones put on their lazy displays for tourists. For example, here’s a mother who came outside, made sure her offspring were safe, and then immediately returned back into the shelter. Apparently it’s cooler in there:

Sichuan is home to the largest panda population in the world – mostly in the bamboo jungles of the province. And to be able to view them properly as a tourist there are three main places for doing so:

the Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (been – 10 years ago);
the Dujiangyan China Giant Panda Park;
the Wolong Giant Panda Garden, which is where we were headed this time…

// Warning: Wolong is 100km from Chengdu – around a two-hour drive each way. But there are other tourist sites nearby too – but more on those later.

As with most tourist sites in China, everything inside is very clean, well-equipped, convenient and comfortable; it’s just the summer heat that’s not so tourist-friendly…

Pandas here live in luxurious conditions – huge enclosures with all kinds of entertainment installed for their idle amusement ->

But all the adult pandas hid in the shade; only the baby pandas made an appearance:

They’re cute and funny, but still – it would have been nice to see their parents too.

It’s hard to say if we came at the wrong time (maybe it was nap time between breakfast and lunch?) or if they just couldn’t handle the summer heat. Can’t be comfy in a bear coat when it’s hot.

But I repeat – they are cute, charming, and just so funny! ->

And I couldn’t help but think – what a dream life they have! They wake up, get fed, and then go right back to sleep… Until it’s time for their next meal!

And just look at these comfortable conditions:

Given that the adult animals hide indoors from the heat, it might be better to visit during a cooler season.

But a few got hungry and crawled outside for another helping of bamboo:

And they need quite a lot of it. Since bamboo makes up 99% of a panda’s diet, and because they have such a short digestive tract, they only manage to make good use of about a fifth of what they eat. So a panda eats 20–40 kilograms (!) of bamboo each day!

And the rest of the time – they sleep. Living the dream!…

Sometimes you only know there are pandas in an enclosure by the signs on the fence. For example, here lives, apparently, Fu Feng, a girl born in 2016 (no doubt sleeping):