The heaviest panda cub born in Chengdu, the "Capital of Giant Pandas"

CHENGDU, China, June 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A chubby panda cub weighing 219 grams was recently born in Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, which is believed to be the heaviest panda cub born in the base.So far this year, a total of five panda cubs, three males and two females, have been born in Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is located in northeastern of Chengdu and renowned as the habitat of the world's largest captive-bred and ex-situ giant panda population. Why Chengdu? For many people, the success of Chengdu is definitely not a stroke of luck.

In terms of the natural environment, Chengdu has long been revered as a beautiful city. Chengdu is located on an alluvial plain in the west of the Sichuan Plain, with an elevation of around 600m, average annual temperature of 16 degree Centigrade, winters that are not too harsh and summers that are not too hot. More than two millennia ago, the Dujiangyan irrigation system, the world's oldest hydro engineering project, was constructed here and continues to play a crucial role even today.

The outstanding natural environment has endowed the area with copious plant resources, including bamboo, the favorite of the giant pandas. In Chengdu, bamboos can be found everywhere, further accentuating the inseparable bond between this city and the giant pandas. In the past four months, the local government unveiled a proposal that involves plans such as "expanding area of bamboo forest to 1.1 million mu and establishing four modern bamboo industrial parks," among other schemes. Tourists might be impressed by the sheer ambition of this proposal, but it is merely a tiny portion of Chengdu's current city planning.

Build the city in a park. In 2018, Chengdu officially put forth the notion to create a beautiful and livable park city, which is driven by Chengdu's distinguished natural environment, but even more so a necessary choice beneficial to the city's long-term growth.

Chengdu has planned and designed the 17,000km-long Tianfu Greenway System, which will endow an average of more than one kilometer of greenway for every square kilometer of urban territory. This super-long urban slow traffic system will connect together all parks and gardens, big or small, throughout the city, create venues and scenarios of fun and relaxation such as recreational entertainment, physical exercise, urban agricultural experience and urban night tour, thereby enriching the leisure in the daily living of local dwellers.

In the near future, the giant pandas residing in Chengdu will embrace a new home. On September 25, 2019, construction for the "Giant Panda Planet" and expansion of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding formally broke ground. After the expansion program, the Panda Base will measure 3,525 mu in area, and the construction effort signifies the official commencement of Chengdu's plan to position itself as the "Capital of Giant Pandas".

According to plans, Chengdu's "Capital of Giant Panda" campaign is constituted by three areas that will amount to 69 square km in total area. Plan calls for combining giant panda ecology, cultural value and the building of the beautiful and habitable park city into a holistic and organic entity that will function as an ecological homeland of the giant pandas.

For Chengdu, the "Capital of Giant Pandas" is transforming from a moniker to reality.

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