Two baby pandas are seen at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Dec 29, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Hong Kong people received a special invitation from a national panda park in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, as a token of appreciation for their support in building the park for the conservation of giant panda during the province’s reconstruction efforts following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.
Huang Shan, head of the animal management department at the Dujiangyan Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas, extended the invitation on Thursday to a delegation of Hong Kong reporters on a five-day trip to experience Sichuan’s cultural and tourism vibe.
The park has extended free admission to Hong Kong residents since it opened in 2013. It has received over 2,800 tourists from the special administrative region this year, according to Huang.
Huang emphasized that the park will always welcome Hong Kong compatriots, and said he hopes the public — including visitors from the SAR — will learn about the park’s close connection with Hong Kong and the history of the SAR’s lofty efforts in helping the disaster-hit locals.
The park was proposed to enhance local capabilities in rescuing wild pandas as part of the post-earthquake reconstruction plans. It made headlines when the project received generous assistance from Hong Kong, located 1,800 kilometers from Dujiangyan, which helped to make the project a reality within five years.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Hong Kong SAR allocated a total of HK$10 billion ($128 million) in aid in three phases to support 190 reconstruction projects across the affected areas, encompassing sectors vital to daily life such as education, healthcare services and infrastructure. In particular, the city spent HK$1.58 billion on panda-conservation-related reconstruction projects, including a systematic rebuilding of the Wolong National Nature Reserve and the construction of the new Dujiangyan park.
The Dujiangyan park, home to a total of 41 pandas, is one of the four research bases under the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas.
The park focuses on rescuing wild pandas, on older pandas’ healthcare, on public education about panda conservation work, and on scientific research, Huang said.
The collaboration on panda breeding between Sichuan and Hong Kong has also borne remarkable fruit, said Huang. For example, when Hong Kong reported that its pandas were facing procreation difficulties, the inland province’s panda breeders and experts offered their Hong Kong counterparts a helping hand. And mainland experts have benefited from advanced medical equipment for treating pandas, such as panda nebulizers, developed by their Hong Kong counterparts.
As a province rich in tourism resources, Sichuan has endeavored to attract Hong Kong visitors since the resumption of cross-boundary travel in January. High-speed railway services connecting Hong Kong and Chengdu were launched on July 1, and high-rank provincial officials promoted Sichuan in a media briefing in the SAR in late May.
On Thursday afternoon, the delegation of Hong Kong reporters toured the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, a water project that has played a vital role in Chengdu Basin’s flood prevention and farmland irrigation for over 2,000 years.
The irrigation system is also a well-known tourist attraction in Sichuan. Jiang Zhu, a Dujiangyan official in charge of tourism management, said the local authorities have been working to attract more visitors to Dujiangyan since the anti-pandemic restrictions were lifted early this year.
She said that Dujiangyan will work together with Sichuan province to carry out more promotion campaigns to bring tourists from Hong Kong and overseas into the city.
