Pandas in the house

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-10 08:53

There is at least one Beijing star attraction that can compete for attention with the city's Olympic venues: the Panda House at the Beijing Zoo. Up to 30,000 visitors are expected to come each day during the Games to pay their respects to the panda bears.

Eight additional pandas from Sichuan arrived at the Beijing Zoo on May 24, and began meeting visitors on June 5. These pandas are called the "Olympic pandas". They are scheduled to reside at the Beijing Zoo until November.

The eight new pandas live in a specially built home, called the Olympic Pandas House, which is equipped with air-conditioning, rock sculptures, a pond, wooden climbing structures and plenty of bamboo to munch.

Most of the time they are happily busy with their meals, despite a constant flow of crowds watching them through a glass wall on one side of their home.

The first panda from Sichuan arrived at the Panda House in 1955, the same year the Zoo opened. The Panda House in Beijing is currently home to 12 pandas total. Most of them are bred in the Beijing Zoo. In other words, they are genuine "Beijingers".

In addition to the Olympic Panda House, there are other panda abodes: an old Panda House, as a retreat for old and sick pandas; a transitional place for new arrivals; and another building for public viewing.

An adult panda can eat as much as 40 kilograms of bamboo per day. But only 18 percent of that is really digested and absorbed, according to Liu Xuefeng, a panda feeder at the zoo. Therefore the Beijing Zoo serves the bears steamed bread made of corn, soybean, rice and wheat, as well as milk powder, calcium supplements and vitamins.

One panda year is roughly equivalent to three human years. The oldest panda in China lived to 36 years.

An adult panda stands 50-80 cm tall and weighs 90-150 kg. Their gentle and timid looks are a bit deceiving, because they actually can move and run very fast. Pandas have long, sharp claws and strong canine teeth. According to Liu, a panda will attack when it feels its life threatened, or to guard its food.

The Beijing Zoo is open from 7:30 am-6 pm in the summer. Entry costs 15 yuan ($2.2) per person, and another 5 yuan for the Panda House.

Ye Jun

(China Daily 08/10/2008 page14)