Giant Panda

　　Giant Panda, Return of Black and White of Colored City

　　One of the last habitats of pandas on earth is China's Sichuan Province. So what about the "hometown" of the giant panda, Chengdu?

　　Fifty kilometers away from center of the city, it's the kingdom of the wild panda. In this city, you can see the panda both in zoo and wild land.

　　The legend of Chengdu's giant panda's reaches back to 1869, when a Frenchman named Davie discovered a black and white hide in a Sichuan farm house.

　　In 1936, an American woman named Louis came to the region in order to find the giant panda. Months later, she found the animal at 3,000 meters above see level. She named one baby panda "Sulin" and returned with the panda to San Francisco on the vessel "McClay President." The panda soon became a popular worldwide symbol of cultural diversity and the treasures of China.

　　In China, the wild giant panda only lives in Sichuan, Shanxi and Gansu provinces and 80 percent of the total live in Sichuan.

　　Nicknamed the "living fossil," the giant panda now numbers less than 1,000, because of environmental changes and human activities.

　　In order to save and protect them, in 1987 Chengdu established a giant panda research base and gained a lot of experience in feeding and caring for them, as well as breeding them and treating them for disease. In the past 16 years, this base, located on Futou Mountain, 10 kilometers from Chengdu, has become one of the most important protection centers of the giant panda and the world's biggest giant panda park, attracting scholars and travelers from all over the world.

　　Nowadays, scientists have helped the giant pandas give birth to 90 offspring, 43 of which have survived. Qionglai, Dayi, Chongzou, Pengzhou and Dujiangyan of Chengdu all have giant pandas. There are more than 50 giant pandas around Chengdu, according to observations by the forest ministry of China and the world wild animal fund over the past 15 years.

　　In the 15 square kilometers where giant pandas live, Chengdu has two main districts -- Mianshan Mountain and Qiulai Mountain -- where are around 1,000 square kilometers. There are four nationally protected areas, including the Anzihe Environment Protecting Area, Heishuihe Environment Protecting Area, Longxi-Hongkou Environment Protecting Area and Baishuihe Environment Protecting Area.

　　The number of foreign travelers in Chengdu has increased 40 percent annually in the past few years, partially due to the city's reputation for being in the midst of a panda haven. The area is among four cities, 12 counties, nine natural scenery districts, and eight environmental protection areas which applied for world natural heritage status in July, 2006.