A great panda success story

Comment on "Female panda released into the wild" (China Daily, Nov 7)

I'm a student in Wuhan, Hubei province, and I visited the panda center in Wolong, Sichuan province, one year ago. The beautiful landscape at Wolong in winter, with fresh and fragrant breeze adding to the serenity of the place, left me profoundly amazed.

The landscape in Sichuan may be strikingly beautiful, but carrying on scientific work there is fraught with difficulties. I recall how physically exhausting it was to climb the mountains in Sichuan and have a very good idea of how difficult it is to reintroduce pandas into the wild.

The mountain trails are usually covered with snow in winter, making it extremely hard to walk. And in summer, mosquitoes and other insects make life really difficult there. But walking in the mountains for several hours is a daily task for experts and panda keepers. Given the demanding conditions that experts face everyday, reintroducing a panda into the wild is a major breakthrough.

However, panda experts have achieved the almost impossible task of reintroducing a panda into the wild, and I felt exhilarated when I first read the news "Female panda released into the wild".

I sincerely hope that the lovely panda, Zhang Xiang, survives in the wild and goes on to live a healthy life. I also hope that the experts at Wolong achieve more breakthroughs in their work.

Lily Deng, via e-mail

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(China Daily 12/17/2013 page9)