A bit more than a year ago, I went to China to do voluntary work with the giant pandas at a panda conservation center. I first landed in Chengdu which is a large city of thirteen million people. I spent my first night at a hostel there and got to know some of the other volunteers that arrived at the same time as me and I even got to meet volunteers who where on their way home. I got to see a bit of Chengdu before we took off for the panda base. I got to see classical Chinese tea gardens and some more about the city. It was absolutely amazing.

We then took off for Bifengxia which is where the panda conservation center is located. Bifengxia is a four hour drive from Chengdu and up into the mountains. The first thing I noticed when we arrived with the pandas was the huge climate change from Chengdu to Bifengxia. Chengdu was hot and dry and Bifengxia was quite a bit colder and very humid. Apperantly it's the perfect climate and temperature for the giant panda.

The first day at the panda base I didn't actually get to do any work with the pandas. The panda conservation center is a very professional organization and everything needs to be done right. First, we had to watch an hour long movie about the base and about pandas in general. We got our special passes so that we could enter the base and we got our working clothes. Gray overalls with gloves. The keepers also showed us what they feed the pandas and of course we got a tour of the whole place.

The work we did at the panda base was mostly feeding them and cleaning their cages and outside areas. The days pretty much looked the same. In the morning is where there's a lot to do. We would go to the keepers station where we get changed into our overalls and start preparing the pandas breakfast which includes special panda bread, carrots, apples and bamboo shoots. They really like the bamboo shoots. First we would clean their cages from waste and left over bamboo. After that we would start cleaning the outside area from the same things but way more leftover and old bamboo. We then replace the old bamboo with the new bamboo. Sometimes we had to weigh the pandas on huge scales to make sure they were healthy.

Working so close to actual pandas was absolutely amazing. They can be a bit dangerous since they are after all wild animals even though they look very nice. They're super lazy and you would never think that they could ever hurt anyone. We didn't get to touch or pet the ones that we were taking care of but the baby ones we got to touch. It was such an amazing experience to be so close to these amazing animals.

In the weekends we didn't work so we went on trips around the area. I was there for two weeks and so I had two weekends to do some tourist things. The first weekend all the volunteers went to the closest town Shangli. It's a really cute little town full of artists and souvenir shops and bars. Very Chinese but at the same time very open to tourist and I really liked it. We also spent one afternoon in Yaan which is the closest city. It has a population of one million people.

The other weekend we made a trip to Leshan where you can find the giant Buddah. It is apparently the largest Buddah statue in the world. That was quite amazing to see and there were a few temples around as well which was very interesting to look at.

Overall, going to the panda conservation center in Bifengxia was an amazing experience and I would really recommend anyone to go there. Helping out feels very good and it was very unique to get so close to these great animals. Volunteering and making a small change and at the same time discover a new place was just the perfect mix. I would do it again if I got the opportunity.