Panda Bears Tour in Xian

Today me and group of others at the hostel in Xian went on an organize tour to see the panda bears at the local animal reserve called the Shaanxi Wildlife Rescuing and Breeding Research Center.

As we walked in, right away we were hit with a big wave ... we saw some men in white trying to calm a panda locked up in a cell, pretty much the kind I imagine being used for prisoners; clearly the panda was not happy and were rushed from the site to another location where there were panda bears; we were told the day before that we could see them up close and even pet them.

Once we got to the other area where they had the panda bears, the were released from their cages and after a few minutes, they were happy to walk outside and eat some of those tasty bamboo leaves ... yummy! Really! I had some bamboo the other day. They were fun and amazing to look at ... at first we had to contend with one, but later another 2 year old bear came out. Sure enough, the Panda bears were playful and let us pet them on the head as they sat right by the cage fence. However, after enough time, you could see that the pandas were not at all happy there.

I was told that the 4 year old bear tried to escape some time before and managed to get passed the walls to get the joy of climbing the tree, but soon enough it was caught and brought back. At one point I was left alone with one of the bears, by then my initial craziness for taking pictures has elapsed and I was just there in the moment. One of the panda bears came right to where I was standing near the fence, got up on the back legs and held the bars, looking straight at me in the eye for what seemed like 20 seconds ... I overcame with emotion and said "I'm so sorry" ... it was so heart breaking ... I wish there was something I could do for them. Later, they older one would just go right up to the door and stand on it's feet and try to put her mouth as far out as she could as she held the bars ... they want to leave! They are in prison and they've done nothing wrong; how could this happen?

Once the feeding began ... it was crazy, they were fed a couple of apples, a few carrots ... and they loved it, but of course it was not enough for them and they were asking for more ... I would too. I felt sad leaving those pandas. We walked around the are a bit more to see some of the other animals there ... it was crazy the kind of stuff I've seen. There were two black bears locked up in a cage and one of them has just gone mad!!! ... he was walking up to the fence, brushing his face on it as he walked around in a circle, on and on and on ... 30 minutes later, he was still doing it. There were maybe 10 wild dog cubs locked up in a cage the size of my backpack ... they were screaming for help when we got to see them; but what could we do?

As, I was exiting, I saw the original panda that was causing trouble as we walked in; it was lying on it's stomach near the side wall of it's cell as it tried to get back the apple that got away into the side cage ... it was so sad. The panda's mouth was full of saliva ... it would try and then rest and try again and again; at one point a little rat came in approaching slowly, but with a purpose ... it would run a bit back as soon as a little noise was made, but then come back closer and closer as it tried to get to the apple ... in the end I had to leave to find out what happened.

We were told that the government has allocated a lot of money for the reserve, which was to be moved closer to the mountain and would have better conditions. There was certainly lots of breeding going on in the facility and we were proudly presented with some big numbers, but what was the purpose? I was told that if some of these animals were to be released, they would be shot by hunters ... but if I were them, I would've taken my chances outside with the hunters but also with my freedom.

Overall, I think it was a tremendous experience and well worth it, both for visual education and for actually seeing and petting the panda bears.