Su Zhong:

A journey of giant panda tracks

Author: Su Zhong

Straddling the three provinces of Shaanxi, Sichuan and Gansu, there is a national park built across provinces - Giant Panda National Park. Recently, I walked through this natural breeding corridor of giant pandas, this green path that resonates with the white clouds and the breeze.

I still remember the afternoon when I climbed the observation deck in the Foping Liangfengya Conservation Area in Shaanxi. When we climbed to the highest place, the vegetation of the mountains spread out in an instant in the field of vision, lush, and under the blue sky, it seemed that everything was pouring in, and it seemed a little trance. The laughter of a group of people stopped, and suddenly the sound of insects sounded on the soles of their feet, some singing, some following, some chorus, some whispering, some swinging forward, some swinging back, somber, rippling, wide, and the breeze swayed the observatory slightly.

The forest ranger said that in this mountainous area in front of him, more than 100 giant pandas are infested in it, and the Yellow River of the Yangtze River is on both sides of the mountain, and the south and north are also divided along the Qinling Mountains. The wind was cool and tinged with a faint green, and I took a deep breath and heard a voice crashing inside me, it was a kind of green smoke in the story, and the poet god who came from the trek knocked on the door.

Giant Panda National Park, very young. We followed the life trajectory of this giant panda all the way, observed the survival ecology of the giant panda up close, and experienced the wild interest and lyricism of nature.

Established in October 2021, the Giant Panda National Park connects protected areas previously part of various provinces, covering an area of about 27,000 square kilometers, with altitudes ranging from 2,000 to 3 meters and temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius all year round. Due to the establishment of the national park, the alpine deep valley and the primeval forest, as well as the places blocked by traffic, have been connected by digging tunnels and laying panda corridors, solving the problem of inbreeding and "intermarriage" of giant pandas. It can be said that this is not a simple addition, but under the premise of doing a good job of each other, interchange and open up joints.

As a result, countless animal and plant resources protected by radiation, such as Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys, clouded leopards, crested ibises, green-tailed rainbow pheasants, oriental white storks, as well as yew trees, dove trees and other national first- and second-class protected animals and plants and rare species, but also opened up the "corridor" of survival, so that it can live in harmony in a broader area, complement each other, thus forming a huge green lung, its breathing, breathing, clouds, water, is the rebirth of ancient time, nourishing one land and one person.

The Qinling National Botanical Garden is also part of this green lung. It is itself the largest area in the world and one of the important areas of the world's biodiversity. In the herbarium here, I saw a chart: about a million years ago, the life trajectory of giant pandas once extended as far as Beijing, Guangxi, Henan and other provinces, covering the eastern, southern and central regions of the mainland, as well as Vietnam, Thailand and other places, with the impact of climate change and human activities, the giant panda activity area gradually shrank to the depths of the mountains and mountains of Shaanxi, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, becoming an endangered species.

Today's charts and figures on paper are difficult to reconstruct in my imagination how a carnivore, once brave and matchless "iron eating beast", in the long years, through how many wind, rain, thunder and lightning and the fragments of the weak and the strong, has evolved into today's cute bamboo-eating doll.

Not far away, the screams of the children in the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center pulled me back from my distraction. Unlike the black and white image we remember, there is a brown giant panda that is said to be the only one raised by humans, and wherever it waddles, the children follow it, the front row is intent, and the back row is tiptoe.

The leader teacher said, know what is the difference between Qinling giant pandas and Sichuan giant pandas? The children's eyes widened - are pandas different? The teacher said unhurriedly that the giant panda in Sichuan has a big head and small teeth and looks more like a bear, and the giant panda in Qinling has a large head and small teeth, and it is fuller, and looks more like a cat. This vivid introduction makes me, a layman who looks at giant pandas similar, can also carefully understand the details of observing giant pandas.

If you like it, you will continue to listen carefully, and a group of grinning faces are moving with the microphone. The teacher also said that brown giant pandas are currently only found in the Qinling area, which is estimated to be a variation that occurred in the process of species evolution, but there is still no authoritative explanation. At that time, I thought, is the original giant panda still dressed in a black and white uniform and a pair of sunglasses?

Baoxing, Sichuan, is the site of the world's first discovery of giant pandas and is part of the Giant Panda National Park. According to records, in February 1869, the Frenchman David came to Baoxing Dengchigou Catholic Church as the fourth priest. David was also a naturalist, and when he arrived in Dengchigou, he hired local hunters to help collect specimens of plants and animals. In March of that year, while on an expedition in the mountains, David was resting at a local house, when a black and white fur hanging on the wall caught his attention. The fur had never been seen in traditional natural history, and David wrote excitedly in his diary, "This animal will be an interesting new discovery in science." The owner said that this animal is found in the mountains, and the villagers can sometimes bump into it. Soon, David transported the collected two into one juvenile specimen, plus a skull, back to Paris for display, which caused a sensation in the West.

However, the discovery of giant pandas did not bring good news to itself, but stimulated the greedy and bloody side of human nature, and groups of foreign poachers followed, and the giant pandas who fled in a hurry gradually disappeared in the sword and shadow and net. In the 70s of the 20th century, when the first census of wild giant pandas was conducted, there were only 2,459 pandas left in the country.

In subsequent censuses, more than 1,000 were hovering. It was not until 1989, when it was listed as a first-class protected animal, that there was a significant improvement. At present, 67 giant panda nature reserves have been established in China, with a total of 2,537 giant pandas in wild and raised animals. In 2021, the state declared that giant pandas were no longer an endangered species, and the threat level was downgraded from endangered to vulnerable. Today's Baoxing, known as the "hometown of the panda", has about 82% of the county's area included in the Giant Panda National Park.

Wawu Mountain is also part of the Giant Panda National Park, the last stop of our trip, and probably the most "mysterious" part of the entire park. Wawu Mountain is 2,830 meters above sea level and was once known as the "Lost Soul" in history. Since the beginning of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, it has been sealed by the cross-dynasty for more than 400 years. In modern times, expeditions, investigation teams, etc. have constantly found that the compass failed, the clock stopped, people spinned in place, accompanied by dizziness and vomiting, and some people were tortured or frozen in the mountains because they got lost and strayed into it, which is called the "Bermuda Triangle on land".

On the other side of Wawu Mountain, it is known as "sacred mountain" and "table mountain", surrounded by thousands of walls, the top of the mountain is a platform of up to 11 square kilometers, surrounded by clouds and mist all year round, waterfalls are high, and there are sparkling poetry in all seasons, which is praised by British botanist and explorer Wilson as "a huge Noah's ark above the clouds".

Here, perhaps a dangerous situation for humans, it is a paradise for animals and plants, and there are frequent pandas all year round. When the staff took us up the mountain, they pointed to some remaining azaleas in the mountain and said, if you come in May, you will encounter 600,000 acres of azaleas blooming, many of which are century-old azaleas, which can be described as nature's heart. When viewed from afar, the sky is indigo, the distant mountains and near water are cascading in the air, the wind passing through the heart will be hot and cool along the way, people are so relaxed and calm, all thoughts have echoed, and all kinds of goodwill have been formed. If this is the smile of Wawu Mountain, it may be an elegant touch in the paintings of hermits of the past.

The wooden path in the mountains winds along the gaps between spruce and fir, and it looks like a shadow along the way. I asked the staff, "Can you still meet giant pandas now?" The staff replied, "It depends on the timing, some tourists have bumped into giant pandas while walking." I asked, "Is the wild giant panda attacking people?" The staff told me, "As long as people don't take the initiative to provoke, don't make loud noises, generally it's okay, and there is no attack, but there are a lot of harmonious joys circulating." "At that time, I was thinking that despite the mysterious phenomena in the mountains, such as "magnetic field theory" and "miasma theory", I would rather believe that there are some natural places that need human awe and active avoidance.

Man is, after all, a part of nature, even a small species. Many people enjoy trekking and relaxing in nature because of the sense of belonging naturally in our genes. In the mountains, under the forest, many calculations in the dust are stepped on the soles of their feet during walking, and often only beauty and warmth are surged in their hearts, and there is also a heart that hangs on the corners of their mouths.

For a long time, I have accepted the saying that human beings come from nature, our nature and subconscious, inexplicable closeness to mountains and rivers, animals and plants are our distant relatives, and neighbors who live together. In traditional Chinese culture, landscape is our belief, just as the starry sky is the law of mankind. Protecting nature is actually protecting one's own home and protecting the shore that turns back in human nature.

Sitting on the plane back, I remembered a girl I met when I was transferring trains in Foping, Shaanxi, saying that she came from Xi'an and worked in the giant panda breeding center of the Botanical Garden, and the giant panda on this side of Foping was moved from that side, and today is its birthday, she made a cake and specially rushed over to celebrate its birthday. She also happily showed hundreds of photos on her phone, which was a bamboo-shaped birthday cake, from various angles, near and far, high and low, dense...

As the plane climbed, in a slight trembling, I heard a voice echoing in my heart, the trip of several days was compressed into a dream, the cool breeze of the mountain insects sounded in my ears again, some words walked freely in my mind, I opened my mobile phone sticky note and wrote down the following lines:

It's not that the leaves can't fly, it's that they fly page after page

The huge insect sound on the soles of the feet raised the rolling hills

I was standing on the breezy lookout

On one side is the Yangtze River, on the other side is the Yellow River

South and north each carry their own colors and walk against each other

Countless winds pass through the path vacated in dreams

Carries whistling, light and heartbeat

Blow over me, blow over me, and never see me again

- The wind is the soul of all things

In Qinling, it often gets rid of the flesh

Using Qunfeng as the keyboard, type the branch Chinese characters

Build growth rings and leaf veins at high altitudes alone

Let go of the cold and warmth, and understate each other

Fortunately, in the projection, take off the look at time and smile

- "The Wind of Qinling"

(Source: China Environment APP2023-09-11)