### Overview
The panda volunteer experience is an unforgettable week that provides an opportunity to help protect the giant panda in rural China. This volunteer project has different activities to help the staff at the sanctuary care for the pandas including enclosure cleaning, food preparation and scientific research. The experience also includes a cultural immersion in the traditions of China with language and calligraphy lessons along with time to explore Chengdu city and experience spicy Sichuan food.

### Objectives
This volunteer trip was a bucket list experience to work with giant pandas in China. The objective was to learn about these beautiful animals and understand more about China’s conservation and breeding programs. 

One of the main reasons that panda populations have declined is habitat destruction. As the human population in China continues to grow, panda habitat gets overtaken over by development, pushing them into smaller and less liveable areas. Habitat destruction also leads to food shortages.

The good news is that giant pandas are no longer endangered, their status was updated to “vulnerable” in 2016 with the success of breeding programs like the one at the Bifengxia Panda Centre. 

Morning clean of the panda enclosures at the Bifengxia Panda Centre

### Activities
The volunteer experience starts in Chengdu, I was met by my tour guide at the airport and taken to my accomodation at Mrs Panda Hostel. I had some free time to explore the city and sample some local spicy Sichuan cuisine. 

The following day we met up with the rest of the volunteer group and visited the "Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding"
to learn more about the work done to protect giant and red pandas. We then went on a walking tour of Chengdu and went to traditional hotpot restaurant for dinner and retired early to get some sleep. 

After a 6am start and a two hour bus journey we arrived at the Bifengxia Panda Reserve in Ya'an, where the project is based. Project orientation included the provision of uniforms, an explanation of the research and a light lunch. As the weather was cloudy with some rain, we bundled up and went for a long hike through the reserve. There were some lovely waterfalls, wooden bridges and a cultural centre along the way. To my surprise there were some roadside food stalls in the reserve who accepted payment with a quick scan of a QR code with Alipay or WeChat pay.

Following an early start, we had a traditional Chinese breakfast at our hotel and then met our keepers. Each keeper looked after two pandas that are kept in separate enclosures. Each panda has a large outside area with a playground and also a sheltered caged section. The keepers put us to work breaking up bamboo, cleaning the shelters and cleaning the outside enclosures of old bamboo and panda dung. 

After lunch we had time to visit the panda nursery, it is so amazing to see these young panda cubs playing with each other. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to touch any of the pandas. The cubs develop relationships with their keepers and are prone to infection so visitors can just look from afar. The rest of the day consisted of more bamboo chopping and then feeding the pandas some treats of apples, carrots and bamboo root bulbs.. On some days we headed to the kitchen to make panda bread, a nutritious mixture of soybean, rice and corn along with eggs, calcium, oil and water. The ingredients and mixed together to form a dough and then moulded into cakes to be baked in the oven. Most days had similar duties to care for the pandas, you never tire from seeing these amazing creatures up close. 

The evenings were a mix of cultural activities like learning some Chinese, which was quite entertaining for the mostly Chinese group seeing the only two westerners in the group struggle with the tones of the language. We also had a calligraphy class and visited a local small town along with trying to learn how to play mahjong with our group.















### Perspectives

This was a thoroughly enjoyable volunteer week, going from Bondi Beach in the middle of summer to the cold winter in rural China to work with giant panda’s was something I will never forget. 

The work we provided helped the panda keepers take a small break in their dedicated work ensuring their pandas remained healthy and happy. We learnt a great deal about pandas, their diet, habitat and breeding programs.

There was some impact to the conservation centre and surrounding communities with money coming in from the volunteers. The key impact was probably more for the perspectives of the volunteers and their understanding of the importance of animal conservation and the effects of humans encroaching on wildlife habitats. 


### Suggested Charities
Are you looking for charities that help in Panda conservation? Here are two that may be interesting. 

The giant panda is the flagship species of WWF. Adopting one is a symbol of your compassion for all endangered species and their homes, locally and globally.

The mission of Pandas International, a nonprofit organization, is to ensure the preservation and propagation of the endangered Giant Panda.

Baby panda cubs in the nursery at the Bifengxia Panda Centre!

In China's Sichuan province a round of hot pot that simultaneously burns and numbs the tongue.

A group shot of the volunteers for the week

A volunteer experience working on Panda conservation in rural China. This trip was part of a Volunteer Time Off (VTO) project with Salesforce. 

Volunteering with Pandas in rural China

Rob Holliday
Founder, WhereNext Experiences

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Volunteering with Pandas in rural China

Rob HollidayFounder, WhereNext Experiences

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Rob Holliday
Founder, WhereNext Experiences