National Treasure of China
1 min readThe giant panda, or panda is a bear native to central-western and south western China. It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round body.
Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the giant panda’s diet is over 99% bamboo. Giant pandas in the wild will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents or carrion.
The giant panda is among the world’s most adored and protected rare animals, and is one of the few in the world whose natural inhabitant status was able to gain a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.
Native to China and adored around the world, the giant panda has played an important role in the country’s diplomacy.This is known as “Panda Diplomacy”.
The practice dates back to the Tang Dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor. China revived panda diplomacy in the 1950s when China sent two pandas to the Moscow Zoo.By 1982,China had given 23 pandas to nine different countries. The most famous one was China’s gift of two pandas, Ling-Ling and Xing-Xing, to the United States in 1972 after former President Richard Nixon’s visit to China.
However, since the early 1980s,China has stopped giving away pandas for free because of their decreasing numbers. Instead, the animals are loaned to other countries.
