As I pack our video and audio equipment into boxes, there are some bittersweet feelings in the air here at Bifengxia. We’ve been tip-toeing around the fact that the CCRCGP breedings will now take place at Gengda. Which, at this point, means that we will need to move our whole operation. Just last month we received the word from the breeding managers that this will indeed be the case.

Bifengxia has been our main base of operations for 7 years and we treat it like our second home and have grown to know it very intimately. The additional bonus of being located a short bus ride up the mountain from the bustling city of Ya’an has provided a backdrop to a cultural immersion unlike no other for us and for each of 24+ interns we hire each year. Gengda has it’s own pleasantries, but keep in mind that it is about 1/1,000th the size with a population of around 1,500 people. Needless to say, there is no Karaoke bar or Mr. Cheng.

Tomorrow morning, the 3 Bifengxia interns and myself will make the all-day trek to Gengda, transferring some equipment for the quickly approaching breeding season. Additionally, I need to finalize some last minute housing issues and re-connect with the Fall weaning interns Shalyn and Julia before they wrap up their 3 month internship. Furthermore, ss Gengda has a slightly different pen setup, it’s always beneficial if we can work out any possible observation kinks prior to the February intern arrival.

Yes, I am sad to pack the first box, but as long as our funding doesn’t completely dry up, we will hopefully be able to keep a skeleton crew at Bifengxia. We should know more in the next few weeks if it will be an entire shut-down or just a partial ramp-down. In the meantime, I’m off to Gengda.

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Nathan J.P. Wintle is the deputy director and biologist for PDXWildlife. Together with Meghan Martin-Wintle, they make up the Giant Panda team, training all the incoming interns and welcoming them into China. PDXWildlife is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, and as such, all donations are 100% tax deductible. Click HERE to support our giant panda research.