Few people do not know about the Giant Panda. Their symbolic black and white fur-colour distinguishes them well from any other animals. Giant Panda, with only about one thousand left in the wild, is also the most well known endangered animal in the world. The rare animal is endemic to China, though some of the habitats were found in northern Vietnam and other nearby areas over half a million years ago. Since the very beginning, most of the research works on Giant Panda have been carrying out on-site at the Giant Panda's natural habitats.
Wolong is a part of the Sichuan Province of China. From Chengdu, it is about four hours' drive. Further drive from Wolong through the Balang Shan (Balang Mountain) will take you to Jiusaigou. Wolong is a highland with almost one thousand meters above sea level. The altitude brings it high contrast of weather among the four seasons of a year.
The Giant Panda Reserve is not all of Wolong. There are many other sites along the way from the fields to the mountaintops worth visit.
The Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Centre was one of the earliest research bases established in the early 1980s by the Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Until 1989, the Ministry of Forestry of PRC and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) formulated the long-term Giant Panda Management Plan.
Today, the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Centre has been turned into the Giant Panda Breeding Centre focusing on research works on breeding and bamboo ecology. Much other research works are being carried out at other Reserves such as the one in Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi Province.
Most of the giant pandas in the Centre stay individually in the captive cages, which are in fact large enclosures, each consists of an in-door room and an out-door courtyard.
The semi-nature enclosures are very large wild areas but protected by border fences. Those giant pandas that will soon be released back to the wild will be put in the semi-nature enclosures for a long enough period of time for them to adapt to the natural environment. Although food has to be provided, the giant pandas will sleep there, eat there and recover their natural survival skills there until they can be released back to the wild.
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