China Guide
Sichuan and Chongqing
Wolong Nature Reserve
Covering two thousand square kilometres of high-altitude forest 140km northwest of Chengdu, Wolong Nature Reserve was established to protect the giant panda. Wolong's highland valley and steep mountains, green with undisturbed pine and bamboo forests, are home not just to the panda, but also white- and blue-eared pheasants and the unbelievably coloured, grouse-like Temminck's tragopan; there are also scattered groups of golden monkeys and near-mythical snow leopards. But don't expect to find these rarities ambling down local roads – you'll need to spend months in Wolong's dense, wet undergrowth for the chance of encountering any of these animals face to face.
You can, however, see captive giant pandas easily enough at Wolong's modern research base (¥30), where they have been given spacious open-air pens to play or snooze the days away. Everything in China is a growth industry nowadays and pandas are no exception; the base's breeding programme has become so successful – reputedly by showing the notoriously indifferent bears "panda porn" to get them in the mood – that they're talking about setting up a business to sell them to foreign zoos. This means that there are often younger animals on show, which are far more boisterous creatures than their somnambulistic parents. You can do volunteer work here for about ¥200 a day – check out 
www.pandaclub.net for details.