The giant panda, known as the "living fossil" of the animal world, has lived on the earth for 8 million years and has performed the legend of life. China's brilliant achievements in protecting wild giant pandas have attracted worldwide attention. As China's national treasure, the cute and naive giant panda has built a bridge of friendship between China and the world.

Photo courtesy of Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau of Qinling Giant Panda

1

Qinling is a magical and great mountain.

The towering Qinling Mountains are broad, thick and majestic. It stretches from Gansu and Qinghai in the west to western Henan in the east, with a length of about 1,600 kilometers. The main body is located in southern Shaanxi and northern Sichuan. It runs east-west and is the dividing line between the north and south of China and the watershed of the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin.

The Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi are majestic, tall and colorful. Mountains within mountains, ridges upon ridges, mountains upon mountains, clouds and mist, and mountain streams, valleys and basins form a beautiful scenery. Because of the natural climate barrier and water nourishment, the eight hundred miles of Qinchuan are fertile and beautiful, and the unrivaled splendor of the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties is possible.

Going back to more than thirty years ago, I lived in Xi'an at the foot of the Qinling Mountains. When night fell, I would often climb the ancient city wall of Xi'an, look up at the lush Qinling Mountains, and feel the magic and majesty of the Qinling Mountains. and different. During that period, I would often sneak into Huashan, Zhongnan, Wangshun, Taibai and Lishan mountains in the hinterland of the Qinling Mountains with my friends... to enjoy the beautiful landscapes, trees, flowers and cultural landscapes of the Qinling Mountains up close.

The Qinling Mountains stand tall and majestic, and the Qinling Mountains are alive with dragons and tigers.

I was thinking about the Qinling Mountains lying between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. How could such a huge mountain suddenly rise in the 800-mile flat Qinchuan River? And it is arranged so neatly, with no transition or buffer at all. What kind of historical and cultural connotation does it carry, and how many mysterious wild animals and plants does it store?

Photo provided by the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau of giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains

It turns out that the Qinling Mountains is a mountain system composed of thousands of peaks formed after hundreds of millions of years of crustal movement. How violent this crustal movement must be! How can it be possible to overwhelm a huge mountain system that stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers? How much energy does that require?

During the Caledonian Movement 375 million years ago, the southern slope of the Qinling Mountains gradually lifted up and exposed the sea; during the Hercynian Movement 230 million years ago, the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains also began to lift. The Qinling Mountains rose up and emerged from the sea; during the Indosinian Movement 195 million years ago, the Qinling Mountains were completely isolated from the sea, and their majestic figure basically took shape; and after intense transformation by the Yanshan Movement and the Himalayan Movement about 80 million years ago, the Qinling Mountains became The complete Qinling Mountains formed today.

The Qinling Mountains are the "Father Mountain" of the Chinese nation and the backbone of China.

So, what did Qinling look like in the past? Is it also called Qinling? Who named Qinling Mountains?

There are historical records that during the Qin and Western Han Dynasties, the Qinling Mountains were indeed not called Qinling Mountains, but were called Nanshan Mountains. Sima Qian's "The Chronicles of the First Emperor of Qin" in "Historical Records" once wrote about Epang Palace, in which "Zhou Chi is the pavilion road, which leads directly from His Highness to Nanshan. The "Nanshan" that refers to the top of Nanshan is Que", which should be the mountain range south of Xianyang. When Sima Qian quoted Sima Xiangru's "Shanglin Fu" and "Ai Qin II Fu" in "The Biography of Sima Xiangru", he also described "Nanshan Mountain is towering" and "looking at the unevenness of Nanshan Mountain". In Sima Qian's "Historical Records", there is no mention of "Qinling".

When did the huge mountain range across the Qin Dynasty become known as the "Qinling Mountains"? In the "Ode to the Two Capitals" written by Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Ode to the Western Capitals" has the description "Qinling Mountains, Beifu", and "Ode to the Eastern Capitals" also has the description of "Qinling Mountains, Jiuwei, Jing, and Wei River". It can be said that from the Pre-Qin Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty, there was no such title as "Qinling Mountains". Instead, Qinling Mountains was called "Nanshan Mountain". It was not until Ban Gu wrote "Liangdu Fu" that Qinling Mountains first appeared in historical records.

Photo provided by Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau of Qinling brown giant panda Qizai

The majestic Qinling Mountains are a magnificent natural barrier.

The Qinling Mountains south of Xi'an is a green and green mountain with lush greenery, clouds and mist, looming and majestic ravines. The most spectacular natural landscape is the rhododendron.

Rhododendrons are distributed in Taibai Mountain, Wangshun Mountain, Niubeiliang and Qinchu Ancient Road in Qinling Mountains.

"The sun will drop blood drops to the ground, and the wind will turn the flames to burn people." Bai Juyi's popular poem in "Mountain Pomegranate Sends Yuan Jiu" describes the Qinling Rhododendron.

In the Qinling Mountains, Dujuan Ridge, which stretches for ten kilometers, is the best place to watch azaleas. The trees are bright red, with clusters of pink and clusters of purple, like flames among the mountains and ravines. Burn to your heart's content...

Qinling Mountains has the largest national botanical garden in the world, with a planned area of ​​639 square kilometers, including 575.31 square kilometers of biological in-situ reserves and 10 square kilometers of ex-situ plants. Protected area, 16 square kilometers of ex-situ animal protection zone and 37.69 square kilometers of composite ecological function area. Just looking at the area, you can tell how big the Qinling Mountains are. The botanical garden collects, protects and displays more than 5,000 species of characteristic plants in the Qinba Mountains and rare, endangered and extremely small populations of national key protected plants, 154 species of animals and 465 species of insects. It can be called the kingdom of animals and plants.

Photo courtesy of the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau of Qinling scenery

Qinling giant pandas, golden monkeys, crested ibises, takins... each lead the way, forming a beautiful picture of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature; tulips, poplars Beauties, azaleas, peonies...the mountain flowers are blooming, forming a world of flowers and a sea of ​​flowers.

A Qinling Mountain is half of the history of China.

The vast Daqin Mountains carry the glorious history of the Chinese nation and highlight the natural beauty of the national park.

Two

The beauty of the Qinling Mountains lies in one mountain and one barrier, and each ridge and picture scroll.

Dan Wenyuan of the Tang Dynasty described the Qinling Mountains in this way in his "Yunping of the Qinling Mountains": "The mountains are green and green, and the Qinglan area is sloping. When you go out to the Tongchuan River in the distance, there are several smokey villages locked in white clouds."

I walked along the foot of the Qinling Mountains and came to the beautiful Louguantai. According to historical records, this was once the dojo where Laozi lectured. Louguantai houses the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center and a wildlife rescue station, where you can observe up close the giant pandas, golden monkeys, takin, and crested ibises known as the "Four Treasures" of the Qinling Mountains. These wild animals are very smart. If they are sick or injured, or if they are abandoned as cubs, they will come to places with people for help.

It would be a lifelong regret not to see takin in the Qinling Mountains. The takin, which the famous American zoologist George Schaller called "six-unlike", has a back like a brown bear, hind legs like a hyena, a face like a moose, a tail like a goat, and horns like a wildebeest. The takin that live in the Qinling Mountains are stout and rough in temperament. The few takin in Louguantai were all rescued. They seemed to have forgotten that they were the dominant animals. They appeared obedient and depressed, not as wild as they were in the wild.

Takin like to live in groups at high altitudes. Each group ranges from 20 to 30 animals, and there are also groups of 50 to hundreds of animals. They are fierce and mighty. There are many takin in the Qinling Mountains, and they gather in groups. If you go on an outing to see the scenery, you may encounter them again. But don't worry, takin have principles and rules. As long as they don't encroach on their territory or harm them, they won't attack easily.

The golden monkeys in the Qinling Mountains are also very cute, with beautiful and shiny hair. It is said that they come from Sichuan, so they are called Sichuan golden monkeys. Smart, lively and mischievous are their natures, and some of them are crazy. They like to swing nimbly on the branches with their tails raised high, their little eyes flashing, and they may accidentally do a few kite flipping movements, or make funny faces. The children who come here to study want to hug and hug them.

The crested ibis, a national treasure, is known as the "Oriental Jewel" among birds, with its white feathers, bright red crown, long dark beak, and slender feet. Hanzhongyang County, Shaanxi Province is their main habitat. When it was discovered in 1981, the population number was only 7, but by 2023, it had multiplied to more than 9,000. The protection of the crested ibis has become a successful case in the world in saving endangered species.

The most popular thing here is the national treasure giant panda. It is not uncommon to encounter wild giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains. I have had such an experience. It was on the way back from a trip to Taibai Mountain National Forest Park. Suddenly a giant panda jumped out of the woods and swayed its chubby body across the road. When I stopped the car and looked again, it had already crawled into the dense forest. Out of sight in the woods.

I think the giant panda must have run down the mountain to the ditch to drink water.

At the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center, you can see all of the "Four Treasures" of the Qinling Mountains at once, and a brown giant panda deeply attracted my attention and subverted my understanding - how could it be possible? What about the brown panda? Why is it different from other giant pandas? Is it the same species as the giant panda with dark circles under its eyes and a "black vest"?

In fact, the brown giant panda is also a member of the giant panda family. As for how it became brown, there is still no scientific and reasonable explanation, which needs further research and discussion by zoologists. A white wild giant panda was also discovered in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan, and is jokingly called a national treasure that has "removed its disguise".

This brown giant panda was abandoned by its mother when she was just two months old. On November 1, 2009, an abandoned brown panda cub was found in Foping and named "Qizai". This is the only brown giant panda in captivity in the world, and people affectionately call it the "Chocolate Bear." The brown giant panda not only has a special coat color, but also has a special taste. It prefers carrots to bamboo.

At first glance, the brown giant pandas kept in captivity at the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center are exactly the same as ordinary giant pandas except for their coat color. I shouted out of curiosity: "Qizai, come here!"

The brown giant panda seemed to understand my words, walked towards me casually, and barked twice. What is it saying?

Three

Inherited from the Qinling Mountains, it benefits the world.

Climb the towering Qinling Mountains and walk into Foping, which is located in the hinterland of the Qinling Mountains.

Foping, with a population of only 40,000, may be the only county in China without traffic lights. On both sides of the county are tall and mighty mountains, green and towering. At the foot of the mountain, there are irregular buildings, high or low, new or old. A Qingjiao River divides the county into two parts.

Foping is beautiful, dreamy and charming. Blue sky, green mountains, clear water, gentle wind, simple people. Here, you can enjoy the moisture of the natural oxygen bar and appreciate the beauty of nature.

The most beautiful place in Foping is Liangfengya. The name Liangfengya is full of poetry. Stand at Liangfengya and feel the gentle breeze. Suddenly a wooden sign caught my attention. When I took a closer look, I realized that Liangfengya is an entrance to the Guanyin Mountain National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi. It is adjacent to Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve to the north and Tianhua Mountain National Nature Reserve to the east. , covering an area of ​​13,534 hectares, is the link between the giant panda reserve group. It contains yew, cypress, and water green trees... 1,569 species of higher plants, and 31 species of national key protected wild animals, including giant pandas, takin, golden monkeys, and leopards... …

There are giant pandas in Liangfengya, which are gods given to nature by God.

When I climbed up to the Liangfengya watchtower, I looked around and saw firs, old elm trees, and arrow bamboos that were hundreds of years old... layer upon layer, covering the sky and the earth. I was wondering, will a chubby giant panda appear like a god at this time? Even if I could see a group of majestic takin or golden monkeys jumping around with grimaces, my trip would be worthwhile.

It is entirely possible to encounter giant pandas in Liangfengya. The book "Foping is Waiting for You" records this story: A pair of lovers came to Liangfengya to play, climbed up the observation tower, and danced with excitement facing the beautiful scenery in front of them. After admiring the rugged scenery of Liangfengya Mountain, they excitedly walked down from the watchtower when a touching scene quietly came into view. A young giant panda was looking through the girl's little bag under the tower, thinking there was something delicious in it. However, the girl's small bag only contained cosmetics. The young giant panda licked it with its tongue and bit it with its teeth, but it felt that it was not delicious at all and was not as delicious as the bamboo in the mountain forest, so it swung its chubby body in disappointment and shook it. Swinging into the dense woods.

This is Liangfengya’s best gift to the lovers.

Then, what kind of meeting gift will it give me? Will I also encounter a giant panda?

It is said that in Liangfengya, some people can see giant pandas several times a day. But I was so unlucky that I saw nothing but towering fir trees, old elm trees, and butterflies dancing around the flowers and grass.

I was a little disappointed when I didn’t encounter any giant pandas in Liangfengya. Suddenly, three mules waving their tails attracted me. I didn't understand how there were mules here. What to use a mule for? After listening to the introduction by the staff of the reserve, I realized that mules are treasures of the reserve, just like giant pandas. Especially in winter, Liangfengya is covered with white snow, the roads are blocked, cars can't go, and supplies are interrupted. It's all up to mules to step on the thick snow, slipping and stumbling step by step, drilling ditches and climbing hills to transport supplies. The supplies are continuously sent to the protected area, which ensures the work and life of the brothers who are on the front line of the protected area all year round and eliminates worries.

While I pay tribute to the frontline brothers in the reserve, I also pay tribute to the mules!

After crossing Liangfengya, not far away is the Panda Valley. As the name suggests, Panda Valley is a dense habitat for wild giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains. It is said that in the core area of ​​the reserve, there is an average of one wild giant panda every 1.5 square kilometers. It is the place with the highest density of giant pandas in the wild and the highest probability of encountering them.

In 1985, the world's first brown giant panda, Dandan, was discovered in Foping, which attracted great attention from people at home and abroad. In the Qinling Mountains, the reserve used infrared cameras to photograph five brown giant pandas, four of which were in Foping and one in Yangxian County, which is adjacent to Foping. So, will there be a population of brown giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains?

Four

The giant panda, which has survived on the earth for 8 million years and is known as the "living fossil" of the animal world, has performed the legend of life. Its ancestor is the panda. After a long and complicated process, it evolved into the small species of giant panda and the Papilloma giant panda. It has come to the present with difficulty and twists and turns, and it has become the black and white, naive and chubby appearance it has now.

Giant pandas are relatively lazy and like to move alone. They have their own territory and have a large range of activities. They mark their territories and declare their sovereignty through special scents. The distinctive feature of giant pandas is that they have 6 toes. They are good at climbing trees and like to sleep comfortably in trees. They also have sharp teeth specially used to chew bamboo. They are veritable "foodies". An adult giant panda Pandas can eat 40 kilograms of bamboo in a day, and the digestion time is very short. They almost poop it out immediately after eating it. Their feces are odorless and have the fragrance of bamboo. Researchers can identify panda populations through the bites of bamboo stems excreted by pandas, which is called "tasteful scientific research."

As we all know, the giant panda is China’s national treasure and a species native to China.

In the magical land of China, giant pandas are concentrated in six narrow strips of Qinling, Qionglai Mountain, Minshan, Liangshan, Daxiangling and Xiaoxiangling in the three provinces of Shaanxi, Sichuan and Gansu, with a total of 33 a local population. There are two subspecies of wild giant pandas. One is concentrated in Shaanxi and Gansu and is called the Qinling giant panda. The other is concentrated in Sichuan and is called the Sichuan giant panda. The difference between the two subspecies of giant pandas is that the Qinling giant panda has a small head. The teeth are big, while the Sichuan giant panda has a big head and small teeth.

In 2017, China launched a pilot project for the giant panda national park system. After five years of coordinated efforts, the giant panda national park was officially established in October 2021, and an ecological corridor of 27,000 square kilometers was built for giant pandas. The 82 giant panda reserves involved are connected by man-made boundaries of mountain canyons and primeval forests, providing giant pandas with space for natural movement and providing Chinese experience that can be used for reference in the world's wildlife protection.

Giant pandas are a rare species in the world and reproduction is very difficult. They usually go into heat and mate from April to May every year, and it only takes 2 to 3 months to give birth to panda cubs. Giant pandas weighing more than 100 kilograms give birth to mouse-sized panda cubs after two or three months of pregnancy. The weight ratio of mother to cub is 1000:1, which is beyond human imagination. Moreover, giant pandas are incompetent mothers with no parenting experience. The cubs basically fend for themselves, and the survival rate is very low. However, the giant panda has not become extinct. It is still active on the earth and continues to grow. This is due to its tenacious vitality, the establishment of protected areas, habitat improvement, avoidance of inbreeding, scientific artificial breeding, and release into the wild. relation.

On July 7, 2021, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to announce that the wild population of giant pandas in China has reached more than 1,800. , the threat level was reduced from endangered to vulnerable. According to monitoring data from the Giant Panda Center, the wild giant panda population is 1,864. It can be said that China has made brilliant achievements in protecting wild giant pandas that have attracted worldwide attention.

Five

In fact, China has only discovered and understood giant pandas for more than 100 years.

According to historical records, the French naturalist and priest David served as a missionary in China for 10 years. He was the first naturalist to go to the mountainous areas on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. The Catholic church built secretly in Dengchigou was used as a stronghold, and a large number of animal and plant specimens and living bodies were collected. In February 1869, David embarked on his second inspection trip to inland China. When he was inspecting the top of Hongshan Mountain in Baoxing, he accidentally found a black and white animal fur on the wall of a landlord named Li. Fur had never been recorded or described in traditional natural history, and he was particularly curious. According to local folks, this animal often appears in the jungle and can be encountered from time to time. David believes that this animal will become a new discovery in science. So, he painstakingly hired villagers to collect 20% of cub panda specimens and animal skulls in the deep mountains and old forests, and shipped them to Europe, where they became a sensation in Western countries and became the treasure of the Paris Museum of Natural History.

The "birth" of China's giant panda has made the world excited.

Unfortunately, in the 78 years from then to 1946, the door of China’s animal kingdom was brutally opened several times by greedy foreign lawless elements, setting off several rounds of fanaticism around the world. During the "Panda Fever", more than 200 foreigners came to China's western Sichuan to wildly capture and hunt giant pandas. 16 living giant pandas were blatantly shipped abroad, and 70 giant panda specimens were displayed in foreign museums.

This is the greatest tragedy in the animal history of China and even the world.

Six

Baoxing County, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, is the place where China's first giant panda was discovered, and it can be called the "hometown of pandas".

Located in the transition zone between the Sichuan Basin and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Ya'an is known as the "Lungs of Heaven" and the "Animal and Plant Gene Bank". There are 340 wild giant pandas, and it is a dense habitat for wild giant pandas in China. And the main producing areas are also the places where the "star" giant pandas are produced.

China is a country of etiquette. From 1957 when the first giant panda was presented to the Soviet Union as a "national gift" to 1982, a total of 24 giant pandas were presented to the United States and France as national gifts. 9 countries have allowed foreign friends to see China’s giant pandas up close. 18 of them are from Ya’an and 17 of them are from Baoxing.

Walking in Baoxing County is like walking into the world of pandas. Streets and alleys are named after pandas. Even telephone poles and road signs on both sides of the highway, as well as hotel lobbies, corridors, conference rooms, and rooms are all covered with beautiful photos of giant pandas in various shapes. Even the hotel I stayed in was uniquely called the Panda Hotel. One can imagine how important the giant panda is in the hearts of Baoxing people.

In Baoxing, I couldn’t help but think of the giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains. I wonder: What are the differences between Qinling giant pandas and Sichuan giant pandas? Why are the Qinling giant pandas not as famous as the Sichuan giant pandas, and so few of them can go abroad?

It must be said that Sichuan is at the forefront of the country in terms of giant panda publicity, research and breeding, and has built many research and breeding bases, such as the Wolong Chinese Giant Panda Garden Shenshuping Base, Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Bases, Dujiangyan Chinese Giant Panda Garden, Ya'an Bifengxia Base...the giant pandas bred are all top-quality.

However, both the Sichuan giant panda and the Qinling giant panda are important members of the national park; they are cute, cute and versatile. Human nature, chubby body, twitchy walk, and cute naivety... They are beautiful and unique rare national treasures given to China by God. "Panpan" was the mascot of the 11th Beijing Asian Games in 1990, "Fuwa" was the mascot of the 29th Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, "Bingdundun" was the mascot of the 24th Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, and "Bingdundun" was the mascot of the 24th Beijing Winter Olympics in 2023. "Rongbao", the mascot of the 2016 Universiade... These international competition mascots are all lively and naive Chinese giant pandas. They have built a bridge of friendship between China and the world.

Congratulations, my dear and respectable national treasure, the giant panda!