Just outside of city of Chengdu, known as the "City of Hibiscus" for the most recent 1,000 years, is the Giant Panda Sanctuary.

As with most wild animals who look domesticated because they reside in pens, there is still no guarantee that a tourist will actually see the wild animal, that encounter is often controlled by the animal in question. Not even tour guides have a say.
So we felt lucky that we did see Pandas in the Giant Panda Sanctuary. Apparently if the weather is not panda-perfect, the panda stay inside their shelters and drink ice tea.  Our day was filled with perfect weather – a bit cool (80ish degrees  and of course humid and misty.  Bad hair for me, you can see it in all the photos, but there’s not much to be done about it).
When we arrived, first thing in the morning, the pandas had already emerged from their shelters are were outside ready to frolic and entertain. I point this out because the Prime Minister of Spain visited the sanctuary yesterday and not a single panda emerged, not even for his eminence. We feel we won a prize.   

This is  how a Panda entertains: the panda slouches against a tree or a grassy knoll and continently chews massive amounts of bamboo shoots.  The tourist stand a few yards away, face hidden behind a camera and takes innumerable photos of the panda eating the bamboo shoots.
It’s restful. Us and the pandas. Gazing silently at one another.
A question is raised. Why are there so few pandas?  Why is the sanctuary so important. Have the bad humans over hunted the poor innocent pandas?

No. Pandas are not only unique in their appearance they are unique in that they have, among all species, the worst mating habits on the planet.  Those indifferent mating habits coupled with even worse parenting skills, makes  a person wonder  why any pandas are alive at all.
Pandas are alive  because humans think they are adorable.  Teams of talented scientists armed with grant money (to save the fluffy and adorable creatures of the world) work tirelessly to help the Pandas.

Scientists have learned to snatch a new born panda (tiny compared to the mother) from the mother to protect it. New panda mothers have a tendency to either bat the little new born around like a ball, or step on it.  Pandas are also puzzlingly indifferent to mating. One would think, after years of evolution, that panda would have evolved, like the rest of us, to appreciate the sex act in order to make it pleasurable, in order to make more of the species on a relatively regular basis. Apparently the panda considers sex as no more than an interruption to his/her sitting around time.
Researchers and well meaning volunteers have tried training the pandas. Trained professionals have set up group encounters for the pandas to stimulate activity.  Scientist and zoologists place boy and girl pandas together and “help” them get it together. 

Scientists have also developed mating films – Panda Porn – to show pandas how it’s done.  The pandas gather in the dark theater and watched the evenings screening Lui Lui does Chendu, or something like that. Many exhausted scientists  artificially inseminate the female Panda and call it a night.

The panda sanctuary reveals all these panda challenges in a mostly unflinching way. We liked  that while the mating situation was discussed, the narrator took great pains to explained that the pandas were “married” before the superhuman efforts of the scientists had to intervene.
And my mother bought two stuffed panda who are magnetized and pulled together to say “I love you.” 

Which is marvelously ironic. In Panda country, love is not enough.

Parthenon Museum

Today
I met the iconic Greek
You know the one
Round eyes, with holes – what did the eyes hold?
the lamb slung over his shoulder
that Etruscan enigmatic smile
we’ve spoken before
in the pages of Jansen’s History
I had traveled far to meet him.

Golden Pavilion
the trees with red leaves
were astonishing