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China Giant Pandas

Giant Panda Summary Facts
Chinese: 'big bear-cat' 
Class: mammal (Mammalia)
Family: bear (Ursidae)
Species: black-and-white (melanoleuca)
Size: up to 0.75 meter tall, 1.5 meters long (2.5 feet tall, 5 feet long)
Weight: up to 150 kilograms (330 pounds)
Life span: 15 to 20 years in the wild (up to 30 years in captivity)
Reproduction: one cub per 2 years; mating occurs in spring and a cub is born in late summer.

China Panda

Pandas are seriously one of the cutest animals on the planet and our China panda tours are just as special as these delightful animals. With China the only place where these pandas are found living in the wild, seeing pandas up close is definitely a travel memory you’ll treasure.

Increasingly used as the emblem of China, the cuddly and lovable giant panda lives nowhere else in the world outside captivity. The giant panda is on the WWF logo and is known as a 'national treasure' in China.


What Giant Pandas Look Like

Chengdu Giant Pandas

Giant pandas look like bears but they have a distinctive black and white appearance. Their four legs are covered in black fur and they have a black band around their shoulders as well as their eyes and ears.

Here's one fact that you may not have noticed before. Guess what color their tail is? It’s white!

Where to See Pandas

Chengdu Pandas

Many travelers make their trips to China for the giant pandas. There are many places in China but the best places are around Chengdu in Sichuan Province, "the giant pandas' home town".

If you want to have more close contact with a giant panda, such as joining a giant panda volunteer program to take care of them, you need to travel to Chengdu.

What Giant Pandas Eat

Chengdu Pandas

Giant pandas eat bamboo roots, bamboo shoots, and bamboo leaves. Bamboo forms 99% of their daily diet.

Captive giant pandas also eat “panda cake” that has been made from rice flour, soybean powder, corn flour, and egg. Wild pandas will also eat grasses, insects, mice, and even lambs found in surrounding villages.

What Pandas Do All Day

Dujiangyan Pandas

Giant pandas spend as long as 14 hours eating per day as the bamboo provides a low amount of calories so they get hungry very quickly.
When they are full, they will sleep for 2 to 4 hours. When they wake up again, they will look for more food.
Besides eating and sleeping, they also climb trees. Yes, a giant panda can climb trees! They climb trees to get away from danger, propose to partners, and evade stronger competitors.

Giant Panda Conservation

The giant panda now only lives in a few mountain ranges in central western and south western China, mainly in Sichuan Province, and also available in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. It is classified to be an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to the official report based on 1999-2000 census, There are 1,590 that live in the wild in their natural habitats.
The number was pessimistically estimated as 1,000 several years ago. A new round of census has begun since the middle of 2011, and the number is expected to be updated very soon.

Giant Panda Reproduction

The Giant Pandas' mating season is only 2-4 days during March to May. If missed, they will wait till the next year. One female panda will usually breed only one baby, and it is not easy for wild pandas to have twins anyway. The lowered fertility generated the research on captive breeding. The China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda was established in 1983, jointly by Wolong National Reserve and WWF whose inspired from a panda named Chi Chi who was transferred from the Beijing Zoo to the London Zoo in 1958. The number of captive giant pandas reached 328 by the end of 2011. This is a great accomplishment.

Take a Panda Tour with Us

We have specially-designed panda tour packages, offering you a chance to get close to giant pandas. These can be tailored to include Mount Qingcheng and other Kung Fu Panda sites. Our travel advisors can also help you tailor-make a tour according to your requirements.

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Top 4 Sichuan Tours chosen by most customers to explore Sichuan in the best way. Check the detailed itinerary, or tailor your own trip now with us.

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