The giant panda is rarely seen in the wild, only 1500-2000 of them remain. So a panda safari is no option. The best alternative is to visit one of the 16 parks mentioned above to see their natural living environment, plus observe the animal itself in captivity. To achieve this, I went to Mount Qingcheng where 6 or 8 pandas reportedly still live and to the Panda Breeding Centre in Chengdu (not part of the WHS). The best combination probably can be found in Wolong, but I couldn't get there because the road was closed.

This WHS highlights the habitat of the Giant Panda. This includes other animal species, like the similar elusive snow leopard, the golden monkey, black-necked crane, brown bear, red panda and golden eagle. Among the flora the high Rhododendron diversity (100 species) stands out. I spent half a day hiking around Qingcheng mountain (on what is called the 'back side' or 'rear mountain', the higher and more natural side of the mountain, instead of the front where most of the Taoist monasteries are located). The cable car ride up gives a good view of the tall trees in this mixed forest, and also the larger birds (I saw some black/white long tail feathered ones). Hiking down through the lush forest I encountered several waterfalls, caves and high diversity of low plants.

Unesco has put the original Chinese nomination dossier on the internet (a good read), in which the giant panda is called "the single most admired and valued animal on the planet". In the breeding center in Chengdu I had a good look at some of them. They're cuddly for sure. And also unbelievably slow, they just fall asleep climbing up a tree. When they're not sleeping, they're eating - munching away kilos of bamboo a day.