PANDAS AND HUMANS: ANCIENT CHINA, ATTACKS, FANS, NATIONALISTS

PANDAS AND HUMANS IN ANCIENT CHINA

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Panda papercut

Over the centuries the Giant Panda has been called Pixiu, Mo, Zouyu, Whitebear, Flowery-bear, Bamboo-bear and Iron-eating Animal. China’s oldest poetry, more than 3,000 years old, describes men giving a pelt that seems likely to have been a panda's. Texts from around that time also describe a lumbering black and white animal. Ancient books and histories recorded that giant panda were regarded as mystical, legendary and rare animals and in ancient times they could be found in many places they are not found today such as Henan Province in northern China, Shanxi Province of northwest China, Hubei Province and Hunan Province in central China, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Fujian Provinice in South China, Yunnan Province, Guizhou Province, and all the mountainss surrounding the Sichuan Basin.

The famous Chinese historian Sima Qian (145- 86 B.C.) Of the Han Dynasty wrote in “Records of the Historian: Records of the Five Emperors” that 4000 years ago, a head of a tribe called Huangdi, used tamed wild animals to defeat another tribe headed by Yandi at Banquan (now Zhulu County of Henan Province). Among these animals, there were tigers, leopards, bears and Pixiu (Giant Pandas). [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

An excavation site of the mausoleum of Han Dynasty Emperor Wen (ruled 180 to 157 B.C.) revealed the remains of a sacrificed a giant panda and a tapir near the ruler's tomb in Xi'an, China. Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: The discovery of the tapir skeleton surprised archaeologists, as it suggests that this animal — whose range no longer includes China — may have lived in the region during ancient times, the researchers said. While tapir fossils dating back over 100,000 years are known from China, the animals were thought to be extinct in the country before 2,200 years ago.

The complete skeleton of a giant panda has been unearthed. According to Business Insider: It's the first time a full panda was discovered buried at such a site, archaeologists say. The panda was found facing the tomb of Emperor Wen, the fifth ruler of the Western Han dynasty. Hu Songmei, an archaeologist at the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology, told The South China Morning Post. Hu told the outlet that the panda likely belonged to the Qinling subspecies, which have larger and rounder faces, and are different from the more common Sichuan giant panda. The appearance of a panda near Xian could also indicate that the climate in the area was several degrees warmer than it is today, allowing for bamboo to grow there, Hu told the West China Metropolis Daily. However, it's also possible that the animal was sent from the south as an offering, she added. In 1975, archaeologists found the skull of a panda in the tomb of Emperor Wen's mother, the Empress Dowager Bo, Hu added. But its torso was missing, Hu said. [Source: Matthew Loh, Business Insider, August 8, 2023]

Pandas and Chinese Folklore

In ancient times giant pandas were considered an animal that was brave and mighty as tigers and leopard. For that reason, ancient warriors were compared to Giant Pandas, whose ancient name Pixiu was used to symbolize victory in all wars. In the “Book of Poetry”, compiled in the early years of West Zhou Dynasty (1047 – 772 B.C.) Shang Shu (A High Official in Ancient China) recorded that the skin of the Pixiu (Panda) was given as a tribute to the emperor.

The “Book of Mountains and Seas, a classic of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period ( 770 to 476 B.C.), the Giant Panda is described as such: “with white and black fur, it looks like bear; and found in Yandao County of Qionglai Mountain (the present Rongjing County, Sichuan Province), Giant Pandas were named Iron-eating Animal because it was said they ate metals.

There is an old Chinese story about how giant pandas got their unique white and black markings. There was once a a young girl who was a friend of pandas. When she died and the pandas were overcome with sorrow. They wept at the funeral and rubbed their eyes with their arms. The dark color from their arm bands was wiped onto their eyes. The bears then hugged themselves and marked their ears, shoulders, hind legs and rumps, producing the patterns that we see today. [Source: LeeAnn Bies, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Pandas and Humans in Imperial China

In A.D. 210, there is a record of an emperor in Xian keeping several as pets. The mother of another Han emperor was buried with the skull of a panda. The poet Bai Juyi (772-846) wrote that pandas possessed magical pelts that could exorcize evil spirits and cure disease. Panda pelts were highly-valued gifts, often associated with royalty, Panda skulls have been found in the tombs of noblemen from this period.

By the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.– A.D. 220) pandas were considered symbols of strength and bravery — and peace. In “On Shanglin Garden”, essayist Sima Xiangru recorded that Han Emperor Hanwu once had many fowls and animals in Shanglin Garden for the emperor's hunting, and Mo (Giant panda) was among the most important animals. In the West Jin Dynasty (A.D. 266–316) the Giant panda was called Zhouyu.("Animal of Justice ") because it ate bamboo only and did not hurt other animals, and was seen as an an animal of peace and friendliness. When two forces meet in a fierce battle, if one army shows a flag marked "Zhouyu," the battle will stop, according to ancient traditions of war. A flag marked "Zhouyu" means peace and friendship. [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

According to the Imperial Yearbook of Japan, on October 22, 658 A.D., the Tang Empress Wu Zetian sent two white bears (Giant pandas) and 70 pieces of panda fur to Emperor Tianwu of Japan. When the great poet of Tang Dynasty Bai Juyi was resting and felt cold and had a headache because of the chilly wind someone gave him a screen on which a giant panda was painted. It is said the screen had a magic effect and immediately drove away the illness. To mark the moment Bai Juyi wrote “Ode to a Pixiu Screen” on the screen and said that giant pandas need a peaceful environment for survival and expressed his concern about the misfortunes and famines brought to the common people by wars.

In “Compendium of Materia Medica”, the famous Ming Dynasty ( (A.D. 1368 to 1644) pharmacist Li Shizhen described how bedding made of panda fur can prevent coldness and wetness, as well as pestilence and vice. He also said the oil of panda can penetrate the skin to cure tubers; and its urine, drunk together with water, can dissolve metal things eaten by mistake.

Names for the Giant Panda

Pixiu is the ancient name of the Giant Panda in Book of Songs, Annotations of Erya (A proto-dictionary in the form of a collection of early glosses and explanations on words appearing in Zhou texts) by Guopu, first records in Han Shu·Wenyilu (A.D. 111) . This book records: Huoganjiang (the name of a male panda); Xiu (the name of a female panda), in Ciyuan (Source of words) as well as pixiu and mo as words for pandas.[Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

Pandas were also referred to as: 1) Huangmo, in the WangHuiPian (a Book of Zhou Dynasty); 2) White Leopard in Annotations of the Book of Songs by Luji; 3) Mengbao and Mengshishou in the Shu Zhong Guang Ji (Extensive Records of Central Sichuan Province); 4) Nietie in Shenyijing (Book on Strange Things); and 5) Iron-Eating Animal in Shu Zhong Guang Ji (Extensive Records of Central Sichuan Province).

The Name Da Xiong Mao (Giant Bear-Cat) (now generally used in China) came from the original name Mao Xiong (Cat-Bear) or Da Maoxiong (Giant Cat-Bear), which referred to the round face like the cat and the fat figure like a bear. Sometimes, people took it as a relative of bears. Later on, the Chinese writing system underwent a reform, and people visiting the Beipei Museum read the sign in a wrong way. So, Xiong Mao became the Chinese name of Giant panda. Now, the Chinese official name of the Giant Panda is Xiongmao.

The local name of the giant panda in its home area is still old white bear or flowery bear. The Tibetan people in the Mingshan Mountain call it Dang or Du Dong Ga, or Dong Ga. The people of Pingwu County call it Bai MaBu Da. The Li people of Liangshan Mountains call it Equ. All of these local names, though different in pronunciation, retain the meaning of a white or white-and-black bear-like animal.

“The giant panda also has other names like Chinabear, Bamboobear, Silverdog and Giant raccoon. The name giant raccoon came into being because the giant panda is closely related to raccoon (even now, some scholars tend to classify it into the raccoon class), but the panda is much bigger than the raccoon. The name silver dog appeared because the Red Pandas are locally called golden dog, so giant pandas with white hairs are called silver dogs. Bamboo-bear, we can easily guess, is from the fact that the giant panda eats bamboos; and Chinabear was given to it because it is a rare animal peculiar to China.

Slow Rise of the Giant Panda’s Popularity in Modern China

Nectar Gan of CNN wrote: Throughout much of history, giant pandas left little impression on Chinese literature and art, let alone holding any cultural significance like the dragon, the tiger or the crane. The obscure panda only emerged as a national icon well after the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, according to E. Elena Songster, a historian and author of “Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon.” [Source: Nectar Gan, CNN, January 27, 2025]

Unique, lovable and free of historical baggage, the black and white bear was deemed an ideal symbol for the young communist nation to shape its image and identity. Even then, it took years for the panda to gain widespread recognition and adoration in an impoverished country. Liu Xuehua, an ecologist who dedicated her career to preserving panda habitat, never knew about these bears growing up in a small industrial city in southeastern China in the 1960s and 1970s. “The media wasn’t so developed, we spent a lot of time studying at school and there weren’t that many zoos in the provinces,” she recalled.

Nowadays, it’s virtually impossible for a Chinese child to grow up without knowing pandas – the “national treasure” brought back from the brink of extinction. They are featured in cartoons, textbooks, toy stores, and – with their captive population growing from about 100 to more than 700 in a span of decades – can now be seen in zoos across nearly every province in China.

Soft power is something China has struggled with in recent decades even as it propelled itself to become the world’s second-largest economy. Japanese fashion, films, anime, manga and video games have long captivated fans across the globe. More recently, the “Korean wave” has taken the world by storm, setting off a craze for K-pop, K-drama, K-beauty, K-everything. For China, an authoritarian state where cultural czars dictate the terms of artistic creations, the most successful tool to win hearts and minds worldwide has been – and remains – its monopoly on pandas.

For more than half a century, Beijing has dispatched these charismatic animals overseas to shore up alliances, mend estranged ties and court new partners. Pandas have been a cornerstone of US-China engagement ever since a pair arrived in Washington in 1972, following President Richard Nixon’s ice-breaking trip to the communist nation during the Cold War.

Captive and Trained Pandas

Between the 1930s and early 2000s, 53 zoos and 7 natural reserves in other countries have bred or displayed giant pandas, witha total number of 519 (284 captured or saved wild giant pandas and 235 pandas born of artificial reproduction). As of the early 2000s, 32 of these foreign or domestic institutes still have giant pandas, but only the Beijing Zoo, the Chengdu Zoo and the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center outside Chengdu have more than 10 giant pandas each. [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

There were 126 pandas in captivity as of November 1999, most of them in China. Seven were in U.S. zoos. Bored and stressed out pandas engage on abnormal repetitive behavior such as pacing and head tossing. To keep them entertained pandas are given "toys" such as tree branches, burlap bags stuffed with straw, apple pieces stuffed into bamboo and fruit-laden ice pops. Human contact appears to distress pandas.

In captivity, pandas are expensive to keep. Even in China where everything is very cheap it costs between $3,000 and $4,000 annually to keep a panda supplied with bamboo. Add in housing and medical care and the cost rises to $12,500. The total cost for keeping a panda in a zoo in the United is $2.6 million.

It is said pandas will respond if their name is called. Pandas in captivity have been trained to do tricks. A panda named WeyWey, who may have been trained using electric shock, performed in the Shanghai Circus. He pushed a little car with a teddy bear panda inside and ate a meal with his trainer. In 2007, a drunken construction worker climbed into a panda enclosure at the Beijing Zoo and tried to hug the panda there. After being bitten by the panda he tried to bite the panda back, saying afterwards, “Its fur was too thick.”

Pandas can be caressed and played with until they are two years old but after that the going can get a little rough and occasionally draw blood, After they are four they are too strong and unprotected interaction with them is dangerous. Pandas like to be stroked and touched. Using a technique called “living heart action” the pandas are touched, pet and talked to in a calm, smooth voice. The technique was first to calm pandas so dosages of anaesthetic could reduced when performing tests. Using the techniques, researchers now need 10 percent less sedatives than they used to when performing medical procedures. The technique was also used to calm pandas traumatized by the 2008 earthquake.

Pandas Attacks on Humans

Giant pandas can be dangerous. According to Business Insider: Pandas may put on a facade of being somewhat endearing, peaceful, and lazy, but humans shouldn't get too close. They're slow, but their claws and teeth are powerful. [Source: Taiyler Simone Mitchell, Business Insider December 24, 2022]

Gu Gu, a 110-kilogram male at the Beijing Zoo, attacked people on three different occasions after they entered his enclosure. In 2007 he bit a drunken tourist who jumped in his pen and tried to hug him. In 2009 he bit the leg of a man who climbed over a 1.4-meter barrier into the pen to retrieve a dropped toy and wouldn’t let go until zookeepers used tools to pry his jaws open. In a stand-up fight with the average human almost any animal larger than a Labrador will win, though there is a story a heroic Chinese man once kick-boxed a panda to a draw.

In 2015, a Chinese man who sued local government officials over an attack by a wild panda was awarded more than $80,000 in compensation. AFP reported: “The animals are renowned for their lovable appearance but despite their placid image they are members of the bear family and have a fearsome bite. The animal wandered into Liziba village, in the northwestern province of Gansu, where local officials trying to capture it chased it onto Guan Quanzhi's land, the Lanzhou Evening News reported. "I saw a panda jump out in front of me, its body completely covered in mud," he told the newspaper. “The creature bit him in the leg and only released its grip when another villager covered its head with a coat, the report said. The incident in March 2014 left Guan with injuries requiring seven hours of surgery. The panda escaped. [Source: AFP, March 16, 2015]

“Guan's son sued local forestry officials and the nearby Baishuijiang National Nature Reserve, which is home to more than 100 wild pandas. Following "negotiations", officials agreed to pay compensation of 520,000 yuan ($83,000), his lawyer Wang Chaohui told AFP. Guan is "satisfied with the amount", which will cover his medical bills, he said, adding that he may need further operations.

In 2008 when a panda mauled a 20-year-old man who climbed into its enclosure at a zoo in southern China. “The nature conservation organisation WWF says on its website: "As cuddly as they may look, a panda can protect itself as well as most other bears," using its heavy weight, strong jaw muscles and large molar teeth. “It cautions: "Although used mainly for crushing bamboo, a panda bite can be very nasty."

In 2016, a keeper at a panda rewilding center wearing a panda suit was attacked and mauled by a protective mother panda who mistook him as an intruder on her territory. CNN reported: When help arrived on the scene, the keeper’s wrist bones were exposed and the costume soaked in blood. Though the keeper survived, the bear’s powerful jaws had shattered multiple bones and tendons in his arms and legs. [Source: Nectar Gan, CNN, January 27, 2025]

China’s Panda Fanatics

Nectar Gan of CNN wrote: Every morning at 7:30 a.m. sharp, a race begins on the outskirts of Chengdu. From the gates of the famed Chengdu Panda Base, fans run to the leafy “villa” of its celebrity resident: Hua Hua, China’s most popular panda. Among them is A’Qiu, who rents an apartment nearby and shares his bedroom with dozens of stuffed black and white teddy bears. The 32-year-old bikes to the panda base every morning to see Hua Hua and film the celebrity bear for his 10,000 followers on Douyin, TikTok’s sister app. In the summer, he gets up as early as 3 a.m. to be at the front of the line. “Just seeing her face makes me feel incredibly happy,” he said. [Source: Nectar Gan, CNN, January 27, 2025]

Rare, fluffy and irresistibly cute, pandas are adored across the globe. Yet Hua Hua’s star power is something else entirely. The 4-year-old is so popular that only 30 people are allowed to admire her for a mere three minutes each before being ushered out by security guards. On a busy weekend or holiday, tens of thousands of visitors from across China spend more than two hours in line just to catch a glimpse of her.

In Chengdu, Hua Hua’s face is everywhere – in souvenir shops, cafes, post offices and on billboards. She also enjoys a massive following on Chinese social media, where her videos have racked up billions of views. Hua Hua’s unprecedented popularity epitomizes a new wave of “pandamonium” that is sweeping across China, following a decades-long government effort to transform the giant panda from a little-known animal into a cultural icon, a national symbol and a potent tool of diplomacy.

Pandas and Animal Rights Activism in China

Nectar Gan of CNN wrote: The success of the pandas’ rebranding has created an unexpected challenge for Beijing, as it seeks to balance its use of the animals for much-needed soft power abroad against the demands of an adoring public to protect their “national treasure” at all costs. The Chinese public’s growing love affair with the bears has also brought more scrutiny to the treatment of pandas in breeding centers and zoos inside China. So many fans are watching the live panda cams. And the Chinese institutions are extremely careful in terms of what kind of content they provide and how they’re being perceived by the public. I think (that’s) becoming more of a norm right now,” said Qiongyu Huang, a wildlife biologist at the Smithsonian who has worked with Chinese partners on pandas. [Source: Nectar Gan, CNN, January 27, 2025]

Some animal rights activists take issue with the ways some of the artificial breeding practices such as the use of electroejaculation, a common technique for collecting sperm from mammals. Some of them have targeted researchers and scientists involved in China’s panda breeding program, prompting the government to signal it will no longer tolerate any attempt to tarnish the conservation success story of the country’s cuddly soft power asset. That sense of nervousness is palpable at other panda bases too. Some staff spoke of concerns that panda experts and caretakers have become frequent targets of online bullying and phone harassment; one said, only half-jokingly, that they now work in a “high-risk industry.” The intensity of online harassment has “made it difficult for some experts to carry out their research work properly,” Hou Rong, a leading researcher and deputy director of the Chengdu base, told the state-run People’s Daily.

As the Chinese public grows fonder – and perhaps more protective – of the pandas, some online influencers have expressed concerns about the bears’ welfare abroad, alleging that American zoos have mistreated China’s “national treasures.” Such claims have often been fueled by the kind of nationalistic, anti-US sentiment fanned by state media. They have gained traction on the Chinese internet in recent years, especially following controversy over the health of Ya Ya, a panda previously on loan to the Memphis Zoo. In 2023, Ya Ya’s skinny looks and scraggly fur spurred concerns for her health, especially after her male partner, Le Le, died just months before the pair were scheduled to return to China. Chinese social media was awash with wild allegations that the Memphis Zoo had mistreated its pandas as a deliberate snub to China. Zoo officials repeatedly dismissed such accusations, attributing Ya Ya’s fur loss to a genetic skin disease – a conclusion shared by Chinese experts dispatched to Memphis to examine the panda.

China’s Panda Nationalists

Nectar Gan of CNN wrote:While many Chinese are proud to share pandas with the world, some – including a vocal fringe group of online influencers – oppose sending their beloved bears to the United States and other “unfriendly” countries, ostensibly for fear they’ll be mistreated. The group’s howls of protest could be heard in 2024 outside the Dujiangyan Panda Base, the temporary home of two pandas – Bao Li and Qing Bao – that were sent to the US in a carefully orchestrated process cloaked in secrecy to avoid unscripted attention.[Source: Nectar Gan, CNN, January 27, 2025]

The departure date of Bao Li and Qing Bao was kept strictly under wraps, only revealed to the public by the Chinese government once their chartered plane was in the air. Once held at panda bases, the invitation-only official send-off ceremonies now take place in hotel conference rooms away from crowds of tourists. A day before Bao Li and Qing Bao’s send-off, Chinese officials rushed to change the event’s location to a more secluded hotel, likely to prevent a repeat of scenes in June, when a small group of protesters gathered outside the Dujiangyan panda base with banners opposing their transfer.

On the night of their departure, as the trucks carrying Bao Li and Qing Bao drove past rows of staff bidding them farewell at the Dujiangyan base, an outburst of heart-wrenching cries erupted beyond the compound walls. CNN journalists were stopped by officials from stepping outside, but videos soon surfaced on Douyin, capturing an emotional crowd sobbing and wailing as they were held back by fences and police lines.

Local journalists who have reported on pandas for years said the crowds were part of a recent trend of “extreme panda fans” protesting the animals being sent overseas. Some even tried to stop their journey by bombarding panda experts, officials and government agencies with angry phone calls. “They believe they’re being very patriotic,” one of the journalists said. The backlash didn’t derail the panda loan program, which generates an annual fee of about US$1 million per pair of bears for China, but it seems to have complicated matters for everyone involved.

In December 2025 , police in Dujiangyan arrested two online influencers for spreading false rumors about pandas being abused in the US and “inciting opposition” to the panda exchange program. (The suspects are also accused of raking in profits of more than $23,000 through live streaming and fundraising from their followers.) Since May last year, Sichuan authorities have arrested four groups of “extreme” animal rights activists accused of slandering and harassing Chinese panda experts.

Art Made Panda Excrement

Barbara Demick wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “To some discerning eyes, the statue is a satire of classical aesthetics that judge beauty by Western standards. To others, the use of natural, recyclable materials shows the artist's commitment to the environment. And then there was this observation, posted on the artist's blog. "Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting!!!" [Source: Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2010]

“The artwork in question is a copy of the classical Greek statue Venus de Milo, made out of raw material supplied by China's most beloved mammals. In other words, panda excrement. Lest anybody badmouth it as just another piece of, well, excrement, it should be noted that a retired Swiss diplomat who is one of the leading collectors of modern Chinese art paid $50,000 for the 2-foot-tall statue by Zhu Cheng, a sculptor from Chengdu, home to China's main panda breeding reserve.”

“Zhu gained some notoriety for a controversial fashion show in which models, dressed entirely in black and white like pandas, portrayed some of the less desirable elements of Chinese society, such as corrupt officials and prostitutes. He said his inspiration for the excrement piece came from the stark contrast between the preciousness of the panda (literally priceless, in that China does not permit the animal to be sold and only lends them to zoos) and the prodigious amount of waste they produce. (An adult panda defecates about 40 times per day, producing nearly 45 pounds of waste.) "Venus is a beautiful figure," Zhu said. "But by creating the statue out of excrement, we set up an internal conflict between beauty and waste that makes for a magical work of art." “

Reactions to the Venus de Milo run the gamut — amusement, appreciation, bewilderment and disgust. "I think it's very creative, the way the artist is using such environmentally friendly material," said Li Chunyang, a hospital worker from Zhengzhou who had taken a day off to bring her 5-year-old daughter, Xiangxiang. The girl was less impressed. "Yuck. I'm scared," she said, refusing to approach the display case too closely. The curator of one show with the piece had mixed feelings: "I think it is a good piece from an artistic point of view, but personally I wouldn't collect it. I wouldn't want poop in my home, even poop from a panda."

“Zhu made the sculpture with the help of a dozen elementary school pupils in a Chengdu youth center who weren't afraid to get their hands dirty for the sake of art. They're now considering something more ambitious — a life-size panda poo rendition of Michelangelo's David. "The kids didn't wear gloves. Neither did I," Zhu said. Because the pandas eat a mostly vegetarian diet, Zhu said, their droppings did not have a distasteful odor. "I was surprised. It smelled more like tea."

“The most difficult part was obtaining the raw material. Although the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, with 83 pandas, had no shortage of panda dung, the management was initially suspicious of Zhu's request."Now, why do you need this?" Zhu recalled the management asking him repeatedly. Once convinced that Zhu was legitimate, the reserve allowed his team of students to collect buckets of fresh droppings. Each one was about the size of a goose egg, with sticks of partially digested bamboo poking out. To make it the proper consistency for sculpting, it was mixed with plaster and glue.”

World's Most Expensive Tea: Grown from Panda Droppings

In January 2012, AFP reported: “Chinese entrepreneur An Yanshi is convinced he has found the key ingredient to produce the world's most expensive tea — panda dung. The former calligraphy teacher has purchased 11 tonnes of feces from a panda breeding centre to fertilise a tea crop in the mountains of Sichuan province in southwestern China. An says he will harvest the first batch of tea leaves this spring and it will be the "world's most expensive tea" at almost 220,000 yuan ($35,000) for 500 grams (18 ounces). [Source: Allison Jackson, AFP, January 10, 2012]

Chinese tea drinkers regard the first batch of tea to be harvested in the early spring as the best and successive batches, regarded as inferior, will sell for around 20,000 yuan. The 41 year-old, who is so passionate about his new project he dressed in a panda suit for his interview with AFP, has been ridiculed by some in China for his extravagant claims of the potential health benefits of the tea.

But he insists he is deadly serious, saying he quit his job at Sichuan University to throw himself "heart and soul" into his company, Panda Tea, whose logo features a smiling panda wearing a bow tie and holding a steaming glass of green tea. While An hopes to make money from the tea, which he has planted on just over a hectare (2.5 acres) of land, his main mission is to convince the world to protect the environment and replace chemical fertilisers with animal feces — before it is too late.

"Panda dung is rich in nutrition ... and should be much better than chemical fertilisers," An said, as he sat at a traditional Chinese tea table drinking tea grown with cow manure. "People should make a harmonious relationship with heaven, earth and the environment," An said. "Everybody has an obligation to protect the environment," he added, as he showed AFP dozens of traditional Chinese scroll paintings that he has created of cheerful-looking pandas, bamboo and calligraphy.

The tea aficionado got the idea to use panda faeces as fertiliser after attending a seminar last year where he discovered that the bears absorbed less than 30 per cent of the bamboo they consumed, excreting the remaining 70 per cent. An showed journalists a glass jar of fresh-looking panda faeces, which he uses to fertilise two tea plants in his office, noting the "quality" and "green" colour of the dung. He is so convinced that Panda Tea will be a hit that he has patented the idea to prevent a competitor stealing it — a common occurrence in a country where laws protecting intellectual property rights are often flouted.

Image Sources: 1) Xinhua; 2) Mongabey ; 3) Panda ailumela; 4) Nolls China website; 5) WWF, Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, CNTO (China National Tourism Administration) David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2025