If you want to talk about China's world-class superstars, pandas are definitely one.
With their chubby bodies and cute looks, no one could resist their cuteness.
As China's "national treasure", giant pandas are also very popular abroad, and in diplomatic work, China often gives giant pandas to some countries with friendly relations, and some countries even spend millions of dollars to rent a giant panda.
It is no exaggeration to say that the cute and cute giant pandas, whether at home or abroad, are extremely popular and enjoy super high-end treatment.
Many countries are even willing to sign a series of "unequal" treaties in order to lease a giant panda. in a word
Anyone who is involved with pandas can easily make foreigners crazy...
However, the giant panda, which is loved by the people of the world, has also suffered a lot while enjoying "preferential treatment".
In modern times, so-called zoologists, explorers, travelers, and hunters have rushed into China to hunt pandas.
One of these women, who also came to China to capture giant pandas, was named Ruth Harkless, and was called "Lady Panda" by americans.
Ruth originally had no connection with the panda, but because of an accident, she formed an indissoluble relationship with the panda.
All this must start with the first foreigner to discover the panda.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="24">1.</h1>
In 1869, a French missionary named Armand David traveled thousands of miles to China in search of rare species.
During his visit to Baoxing County, Sichuan Province, David was warmly welcomed by the locals and invited to a fellow villager's house for tea. It was also at this fellow's house that he saw black and white animal skins hanging on the wall.
Black hair like paint, white hair like snow, David was deeply attracted and praised the animal skin.
The owner saw that David was so obsessed, he told him that it was a "white bear" skin, and there was one in the nearby mountain. David can't wait to meet live beasts, and he thinks "white bears could become an interesting new species in science"!
In order to get this interesting animal, David hired 20 local hunters, and after many days of hard work, these hunters caught a small white bear, and in order to make it easier to carry, they brutally killed it.
David was distraught at the sight of the little white bear that had been killed, and he asked the hunters to catch a live white bear for him. Many days later, the hunter brought back an adult female white bear, and David was very happy and named it "Black and White Bear".
The "Black and White Bear" is rounded, cute, funny, and David is like a treasure. He took good care of it and observed and recorded all kinds of data with scientific methods.
After some time, David wanted to bring the "black and white bear" back to France. But in that era when there were no planes, it was very difficult to cross the ocean, because it could not stand the long-distance running and fatigue, and before reaching Chengdu, the "black and white bear" was already dying and died soon after.
Sadly, David made a specimen of bear skin and gave it to the Rijksmuseum in Paris, France, for display.
What David did not expect was that this exhibition caused a warm response in the West, and it brought ruin to the cute "black and white bears".
Since then, groups of Western explorers and nomads have crossed the ocean to China to hunt "black and white bears" and even hunt them.
And their so-called "black and white bears" are our national treasures - giant pandas.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="138">2.</h1>
The most famous of these are the two sons of former US President Roosevelt, who came to China to look for pandas and brutally shot one, and the reason they shot was also very infuriating, that is, to show their courage.
Even more hateful, they also captured 2 live pandas and brought them back to the United States for exhibition in Chicago. What is heart-wrenching is that the panda died the day before the exhibition due to the water and soil.
In 1931, an expedition led by the American Maurice Durham also hunted three giant pandas at the Chuankang border, which are now in the Philadelphia Museum of Natural History.
In 1934, American Dean Sage hunted a giant panda in a bamboo forest, and the next day, they held a banquet to enjoy panda meat.
According to incomplete statistics, between 1869 and 1946 alone, more than 200 people traveled thousands of miles to the distribution area of China's giant pandas to investigate, collect data, capture giant pandas, hunt or purchase giant panda specimens.
Their approach has set off a wave of Americans hunting pandas, and more and more people want to come to China to "explore", including the husband of "Mrs. Panda", an adventurous scientist.
In 1934, Ruth married bill Harnix, a wealthy explorer with a high sense of adventure. Bill dreamed of bringing a live panda back to the United States, so before his honeymoon was over, he boarded a ship to China.
Perhaps because of the water and soil, Hanix came to China for less than 2 years and died of illness in Shanghai.
Ruth was heartbroken, but after wiping away her tears, she decided to fulfill her husband's last wish. So she gave up her costume design job and came to China to look for pandas.
Ruth, who had just arrived in China, was unfamiliar with the land, and she found more than a dozen villagers to accompany her, and invited Quentin Yang, a Chinese-American, as a guide.
The road between the mountains is very difficult to walk, coupled with the dense bamboo forest, the process of searching for pandas is not so smooth, and they have not found the slightest discovery for many days.
Just when Ruth and the others were in a desperate situation, a turnaround occurred. On a sunny morning, Ruth was resting wearily against a tree. Suddenly, two clear gunshots came from not far ahead, and Ruth jumped up excitedly, because it was the code they had agreed to find the panda.
Sure enough, in a dry tree hole, they found a panda cub that was making a crying sound. Ruth thought it was a female panda, so she named it "Su Lin" and brought it to Shanghai to feed.
Subsequently, Ruth asked many people for help, hoping to bring "Su Lin" back to the United States, but customs told her not to take any live animals unless she got a permit.
After days of negotiations, some top government officials resisted pressure from many Chinese agencies and insisted on giving Ruth a permit. The proof describes the panda as a "strangely shaped pug dog".
In this way, in 1936, Ruth used this false certificate to board a passenger ship that left China with a red panda.
Before Ruth could get off the ship, the United States had already learned of the good news.
When the ship arrives, there are people waiting in the port to meet you.
Back in New York, the Explorers Club also held a grand dinner to celebrate Ruth's triumph.
Ruth was highly sought after in the United States and was named "Lady Panda", and everyone was honored by her act.
Not only that, for a month after Ruth returned to China, she occupied the front page of the newspaper every day, and even the writer Helen Keller came to touch the giant panda.
At first, Ruth feeds "Surin" in her apartment. But as her popularity grew, several zoos began to find Ruth, hoping to buy "Su Lin".
In the end, Ruth could not resist the temptation of money and sold "Su Lin" to the Brookfield Zoo for nearly $8,000.
As a result, the zoo has become a popular attraction, and tourists continue to pay a lot of money.
The zoo asks Ruth to capture another male panda as a companion to "Su Lin", and driven by interests, Ruth agrees.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="139">3.</h1>
Soon after, Ruth and her party came to Sichuan, China, again, and successfully captured a panda, but unfortunately the panda died in the cage.
In the end, Ruth bought a male panda from a hunter in Chengdu, named it "Meimei", and transported it back to the United States in the same way.
In early 1938, Ruth captured an adult panda and a cub, and named the red panda "Susen". But because of the accident, the guide Quentin Yang shot and killed the adult panda.
Ruth is heartbroken and conscience discovers that catching pandas is a great harm to animals. So, she decided to release "Sussen" back to nature, wash her hands in the golden basin, and no longer catch it.
Nevertheless, Ruth's damage to the two pandas can never be remedied.
In 1938, "Su Lin" accidentally swallowed a stick because of her naughtiness and unfortunately died.
Four years later, due to the incompatibility of water and soil and the very simple technology of raising giant pandas in the United States, "Meimei" also died of illness.
What is even more ironic is that after dissecting the two giant pandas, it was found that they had been mistaken by Ruth as females, and they were both male pandas.
The death of the two red pandas made Ruth very sad for a while, and later she wrote her story into a book, named "The Lady and the Panda", which was sought after as soon as the book was listed, and Ruth earned money to support herself.
Later, with the outbreak of the world war, the lives of people around the world were disrupted by the war, no one had the leisure to pay attention to the giant panda, and Ruth became very embarrassed because of her profligacy, and finally died in a cheap hotel in 1947.
Looking back at this painful history of pandas being hunted and ravaged by foreigners, it is deeply sad and indignant, but in the final analysis, it was at that time that our country was poor and weak, which allowed those foreign hunters to take advantage of it.
Fortunately, after several generations of hard work, our motherland has undergone earth-shaking changes, the protection of animals has become more and more sound, and no foreigner has dared to come to our territory to act in a wrong way and loot national treasures. Text/Little Happiness