Professor Pan Wenshi could easily be mistaken for a sober-suited mainland businessman brokering a lucrative deal in Hong Kong. But pandas, not paisley, dot his tie. And instead of cementing contracts, Professor Pan is in the serious business of saving the giant panda, among the most endangered species in the world.
Previous surveys, the fruits of collaboration between Chinese scientists and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), have estimated the total population of pandas at under 1,200 and declining.
In the most comprehensive assessment of China's biodiversity, published last year, the WWF noted that despite the establishment of reserves and enactment of strict laws, the number of pandas has declined steadily in the past 25 years.
The major threat is the loss of habitat due to humans - a familiar story for thousands of creatures worldwide - in the form of logging and farming in the pandas' last stronghold. The pandas' plight is complicated by the fact that, like other mega-fauna at the pinnacle of the pyramid-shaped food chain, their populations are naturally small and vulnerable.
Added to this are the unique characteristics of panda biology: their almost exclusive dependence on bamboo - which is so devoid of nutrients they must consume vast quantities - and a slow reproductive cycle.
However, from the misty gloom of the pandas' mountainous homeland have emerged some encouraging discoveries, the results of Professor Pan's 17 years of research in the field.