Shangri-La Hotel & Resorts Help Plant Bamboo For Pandas

/ Post from ChinaDaily.com via Pandas International

Representatives of the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts and officials from the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan province planted bamboo trees in a new plantation on Saturday to mark a new agreement that will help feed pandas in newly opened Wolong Panda Center.

Bamboo trees planted on Saturday are the first trees in a 1.6-hectare bamboo plantation that Shangri-La is sponsoring in the Dujiangyan Giant Panda Rescue and Disease Control Center as part of its Care for Panda project.

Before planting bamboo trees, Zhang signed a contract with Shangri-La in which the Hong Kong-based luxury hotel group agreed to plant more than 9,000 bamboo trees in a plantation in the Dujiangyan Giant Panda Rescue and Disease Control Center. The panda center is under the administration of Wolong, China’s largest nature reserve for panda conservation.

“The plantation will help provide food for the center’s pandas. Currently under construction, the center, which is home to three old pandas rescued from the wild, will eventually house 40 old and sick pandas,” Zhang said.

Covering 47 hectares, the center, whose construction started in September last year, is expected to be completed next year. It will also be used as an institution to study pandas’ diseases and a base from where the public can take special educational trips to learn about the plight of pandas and engage in activities such as preparing food for pandas in the panda-feeding kitchen.