No trip to Chengdu would be complete without a trip to the Giant Panda Breeding Centre on the north side of the city. It is well worth the 45-minute drive to walk the peaceful bamboo groves, take snap shots of the lolling pandas and catch a glimpse of their tiny babies, that are born here with startling regularity.
Visitors who are interested in genetic biology and ecological preservation will agree that the research centre is world class. Its panda-breeding programme is by far the most successful in the world.
Raising a set of panda cub twins used to be considered extremely difficult because of the mothers' tendency to abandon one of their young.
But Sichuan's programme has proved that it is possible to reach an exceptionally high survival rate through actively helping the mother pandas raise their cubs.
The number of successful births has risen steadily to more than 100 since the 1960s, with the survival rate in Sichuan from 2000 to today reaching 100 per cent. Scientists at the centre are on the cutting-edge of panda embryo collection and insemination, paternity tests and breeding techniques.
The programme plans on establishing a genetic resource bank on not just pandas, but on all of Sichuan's diverse and endangered wildlife.
