Chengdu Panda

The giant panda is beloved by people from all over the world. It is a symbol of world biodiversity conservation, peace and friendship. The giant panda is also nature's gift to Chengdu and the province of Sichuan. It is a special and highly valued resouce in Chengdu.All local and foreign visitors enjoy the beauty of giant pandas. They are also deeply concerned with the current status and future of giant pandas.

The giant panda is also known as the panda bear, bamboo bear, or in Chinese as "Daxiongmao," the "large bear cat." Pi or pixiu are also names used in ancient China to describe the giant panda. The scientific name (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) means "black and white cat-footed animal."

The people of China have a very rich cultural history. Many cultural beliefs are deeply rooted in strong philosophical perspectives that have evolved over time as stories have been told and retold over generations. The Giant Panda has a special place in Chinese cultural lore, as many qualities and characteristics of the panda are qualities revered by Chinese society as a whole.

Chengdu Panda

Three thousand years ago, a written history of the Xizhou Dynasty (1027-771 BC) was prepared. It was called the Shangshu (Chengdu Assoc., 1993a). The Shangshu described the Giant Panda, or "Pixiu," as an invincible animal, as strong as a tiger. This description was repeated in the Shijin, the first written collection of poems prepared at about the same time. This sentiment regarding the prowess of the panda may explain, in part, why panda pelts were offered as tribute to emperors and kings of the day.

During the Xizhou Dynasty, people in Pingwu had a special name for the panda: "Zouya." The Zouya was thought to be a gentle animal, as it was never observed to hurt man or beast. Thus, the panda became a symbol of peace. In that day, when warring armies took to the battlefield, if one army raised a flag with an image of the Zouya, the battle would immediately be called to a halt and a temporary peace would ensue. To this day, the panda continues to be a symbol of peace, and China has gifted pandas to many nations, including the United States, as a gesture of peaceful relations.

In the second century AD the giant panda was a rare and semi-divine animal inside China. In the Han dynasty (206 BC-24 AD) emperor's garden, in the then capital Xian, held nearly 40 rare animal species, of which the giant panda was the most highly treasured. The Chinese poet Bai Juyi (772-846 AD) credited the panda with the mystical powers capable of warding off natural disasters and exorcising evil spirits. Giant panda skins appear scattered throughout Chinese imperial records, as gifts or tributes on great occasions of states. The giant panda was totally unknown outside the secretive "Middle Kingdom" until the declining Qing Dynasty was slowly forced to open its doors to trade and Christianity towards the end of the 19th century. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), the panda was described as having great medicinal value (Chengdu Assoc., 1993b). As detailed in a medical tome entitled Ben cao gang mu, the panda pelt was believed to have a magical influence that could repel plague and prevent tumors. Drinking panda urine was thought to dissolve impurities consumed by an inattentive patient.

Chengdu Panda

In 1870, Alphonse Milne-Edwards upon dissecting what is believed to be a giant panda, found that many characteristics were unlike that of a bear and more similar to the red panda, (Ailurus fulgens). He placed the giant panda in a new genus; Ailuropoda melanoleuca only later to rename the giant panda Ailuropus (panda-like) seeing a similarity to the red panda, stated that Ailuropoda was a name already in use.

Aeluropus, the Latin spelling of Ailuropus was also used in scientific literature to refer to the giant panda. For a period of time these three names Ailuropoda, Ailuropus, and Aeluropus were used in scientific literature to refer to the giant panda. In some places, even today, the common name "panda" is taken to mean either the red or giant panda.

Local people have a variety of names for the panda. Some call it the catlike bear, or "maoxiong." Others, the bearlike cat, or xiongmao.Still others call it the banded bear, or "huaxiong." The consensus seems to be that the most suitable name for the panda is the great bearcat, or "daxiongmao" (Schaller, 1985). The English word "panda" is described by the American Heritage Dictionary as being of French descent. This may be due to the fact that the first westerner to see a panda was P.A. David, a French missionary who allegedly encountered a panda in Baoxing in 1850. The people of the area may have used the Nepali word "nigalya-ponya," or "eater of bamboo," to describe the panda, which David possibly altered to the modern word "panda" (Perry, 1969).

Chengdu Travel Guide