Big library idea comes from small children

Construction of the world's first panda-themed library is expected to start early next year at a primary school in Chengdu, Sichuan province, with the facility expected to open about six months later.

"People worldwide will have free access to it online," said Zhang Mingrong, headmistress of the Chengdu Panda Road Primary School.

The school has a three-story building, the second floor of which currently serves as a convention center. It will be turned into a studio for videos about pandas. The third floor, currently a library, will be designed with five boat-shaped sections symbolizing swimming in the sea of knowledge.

"Each section symbolizes a continent. The five sections will house publications and audiovisual materials about pandas from Asia, Europe, America, Africa and Oceania," Zhang said.

The school is asking for donations of books, literary works and audiovisual information about pandas from different parts of the world.

The idea to build the 1,000-square-meter library on the school's second and third floors started with third-grade students. When the new semester started in February, they studied a book about cute animals in their Chinese class. They were asked to write a composition about their favorite animals after finishing their reading.