I think it is brilliant that you are spending time at Wolong. I was inspired by a visit to San Diego Zoo to go to Wolong. I was at Wolong in September and worked as a volunteer for a week. I have so many pictures of the pandas asleep in the trees in those funny positions you describe. In fact I spent many hours while there completely mesmorised at them. I was so very impressed by the ‘masters’ and their dedication to their charges. Our master was ‘lu shau chen’ (spelt phonetically) we looked after 4 3 year old pandas 3 boys and a girl (two of them twins). The 4 of them weighed around 85kg each I found it amazing to think they grew so big in such a short time.

Wolong has done a great job of being able to breed the pandas, the 2006 crop of babies was tantamount to that. But I was left wondering whether the panda communities they had built up were too good. The pandas reall love to be with their brothers , sisters and peers and play together all the time. But how can Wolong develop better capability in terms of putting them back into the wild?

I hope you learn lots there and that the state of the road and the building work has moved on, and say hi to lu shau chen for me a very dedicated young man. Best Christine

To answer the earlier post about Wolong and Chengdu panda reserve centers: Yes, they are both in Sichuan, but Sichuan is a big province, and the riots were not in either Wolong and Chengdu.

As for the pandas going to Beijing for the Olympics (sounds like they are competing for the game =))…..I read from somewhere several days ago that a group of pandas is chosen, and people can vote on which one they want to see in Beijing. I forgot where I read it though. Sorry.

I did a search on the internet and found all kinds of sites to watch pandas overseas at night of course, because they are all sleeping when we are awake over here in the states. Hope that was helpful. I even asked about Mei Sheng on the panda club website, which is from the Wolong Panda Reserve, but no one wrote back yet. And they are still showing old news about when Mei Sheng arrived in November of last year. So it was nice to hear something from someone! Love those Pandas!!!!

Moderator’s note: Many of you have included the text from the Pandas International newsletter. Please be aware that due to copyright issues, we cannot include these excerpts in our blog comment section.

And, I want to echo everyone’s praise of P Wong’s “conversations”. They’re wonderful, creative and always make me smile. Thanks.

Tourist: Hello, Mei Sheng.
Mei Sheng: Hello, Mr. Tourist.
T: Hey, how’s your new restaurant business?
M: Not bad.
T: So did you get your fortune cookie shipments from Gao Gao?
M: Yup. But they’re really wowotou biscuits, by the way.
T: Oh, yeah. That’s right. Wowotous. Are they tasty?
M: Yup. My customers like them very much. They also like the numbers.
T: The numbers?
M: Yeah, they play the numbers on the fortune strips.
T: You mean lotteries?
M: Oh, don’t be silly. The numbers convert to love songs.
T: Oh, so is that what I hear from the recordings playing outside?
M: No, those are actual recordings of courtship calls.
T: So do the recordings excite you?
M: Not yet. This way I can concentrate on my business.
T: Now what’s happening? I hear some commotion outside.
M: Oh, I’m taking delivery of an American style ice cream truck.
T: Huh?
M: It pipes music, too. You know, the kind that drives around a neighborhood…
T: Yeah, I know.
M: And includes marketing material…
T: For selling ice cream?
M: On sperm bank promotion and matchmaking manuals.
T: So Gao Gao expands his distribution lines…

If anyone at SDZ knows whether our beloved expats will be going down to Beijing please let us in on the news. Wouldn’t it be fun if Mei Sheng could be part of this gathering of VIP’s (very important Pandas) for visitors to Beijing this summer.

So, in keeping with my respect that urls are not allowed on this blog please indulge me the opportunity to formalize the address to access this story: start with http colon backslash backslash dot xinhuanet dot com backslash english backslash 2008-03/13/13/ content_7783834 dot htm
There it is from thee China View news which is three ww’s dot chinaview dot cn

Or go over to http colon backslash backslash news dot google dot com
and search for Pandas and Olympics and Beijing Zoo. That should yield up some more news stories.

Moderator’s note: Cathy, our blog section no longer allows excerpts from other sources, due to copyright issues. Hopefully, those interested in the news article you included can find it from your instructions above.