Visiting the Pandas

Look what I've seen.  Giant pandas!

Last time you heard from me, I was in Dolpo in Nepal, and I was looking for snow leopards not pandas.  After I finished my trek, I flew to a place called Chengdu in the South of China.

Chengdu is one of the only places where you can still see giant pandas.  (There are giant pandas in zoos in other places, like Edinburgh, but not in the wild.)

Pandas are in danger of going extinct as there are not very many of them left.  I visited the panda conservation reserve in Chengdu to see them.  Pandas are specially protected in the reserve to try and help them survive.

I was very happy to see them up close!

Giant pandas eat bamboo and there aren't very many areas where lots of bamboo grows.  This is one of the reasons why pandas are in danger of extinction.

Also, the bamboo doesn't give them very much energy, so a lot of the pandas in the reserve were having a nice long rest.  (Adam, Robin and Grace eat lots of pasta, plus their five a day, so they have much more energy than the pandas!)

I also saw some red pandas.  They are much smaller than giant pandas but they are still very cute!

I've seen lots of amazing animals on my travels.  I enjoyed riding elephants and seeing monkeys in Sri Lanka, but seeing the pandas was just as good!