Posted on 28 October 2007 @ 09:20 in Stress Busters, Travels
Mei Sheng, the 4-year-old panda born in San Diego Zoo on 19 August 2003, should be on his way home to Wolong at this moment. Should be, but isn’t. His return has been delayed for a week. Wolong officials currently at the zoo to oversee his return decided to let him stay an extra week, and he will be on exhibit this whole week, so that his fans, prevented to visit due to the Southern California wild fires, can come by and say farewell to him.
From the day he was born, we all knew he would be returning to Wolong. That is one of the conditions of the giant panda loan agreement - that every offspring born to giant pandas while on loan, even if on foreign land, belongs to China and must return after they turn 2. In fact, Mei Sheng is two years late returning to Wolong.
For a while, it was thought Mei Sheng might be moved to another American zoo, but his semi-wild genes (his daddy Gao Gao was rescued from the wild in the early 1990s) are needed for Wolong’s breeding programme to guard against in-breeding.
A lot of his American fans have been protesting that he shouldn’t return to Wolong. Their main argument is that he is born in USA (his name even means “born in the USA” , and also “beautiful life” ) and is therefore an American citizen, but I suspect some of them also think Wolong may not have the facilities that he deserves.
During my recent trip to Wolong, I checked out the facilities for the 4-year-olds and took pictures to share on the Flickr Pandas Unlimited discussion forum. I think the pictures show that Wolong has more than adequate space for their 4-year-olds, and Mei Sheng, too.
There are two outdoor enclosures that house two groups of four-year-olds; this is one of them:
A group of 4-year-olds in the second outdoor enclosure:
I also took a short video on my Nikon CoolPix 5900 digital camera that shows how playful the above group is:
I’m not sure if Mei Sheng will be housed with one of the 4-year-old groups, or will be on his own. These fellows have been together since 6 months, and it might not be easy to introduce a newbie in their midst. Looking at the current batch of 1-year-olds, I saw that some of them were hanging out together more than with other cubs, so they could be housed together in smaller groups after they “graduate” from kindergarten.
Whatever his housing arrangements after he arrives in Wolong, I have no doubt they will be suitable and adequate for him, and sending him back to Wolong is a good move, as it will help ensure the survival of the giant panda.
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Posted on 26 October 2007 @ 23:26 in Writing
Choong Kwee Kim, author of Ah Fu the Rickshaw Coolie, was interviewed on NTV7’s Breakfast Show this morning. She did a good job answering questions that were not too “altogether there” .
Did you do the illustrations yourself?
Is the book set in Malaysia?
Did your children help with the colouring?
Author and book held up pretty well at such an early hour, too.
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Posted on 15 October 2007 @ 23:17 in Stress Busters
My sister rolled her eyes when I told her that, while in Guangzhou, I’d also gone to the Panyu Safari World to “see” pandas. Well, not any panda, but a particular panda. In fact, I wasn’t even sure if it was that particular panda or just one with the same name.
It was NekoMama7 who’d mentioned there was a panda at Panyu Safari World by the name of Dong Dong who’d originally come from Wolong. The only Dong Dong panda we’ve heard of is the mother of Bai Yun at the San Diego Zoo. Since I was already going to be in Guangzhou, it wouldn’t be too much out of my way to go to Panyu to see if the Dong Dong there is Bai Yun’s mother.
You can say my trip to Panyu Safari World was done on speculation, but in the end, I was well-rewarded for it. The trip not only confirmed that it was the one and the same Dong Dong but also introduced me to the other four giant panda residents of the Giant Panda Garden inside the China Treasure Zone at Panyu Safari World.
Before NekoMama7’s note, I’d never heard of Panyu Safari World, or its giant panda exhibit. I thought Dong Dong was the only giant panda resident there, much like Shi Shi at Guangzhou Zoo. So it was a very pleasant surprise to learn that Panyu is home to five giant pandas, comprising two panda elders who’d been gifts from China, and three younger ones on loan from China.
At 23, Dong Dong is one of the two panda elders at Panyu.
The bio poster next to her enclosure indicated that she was probably Bai Yun’s mother, and this was confirmed by a chat with the interpreter on duty.
Ming Ming, the other panda elder at Panyu, is 30 and a male.
Of the three younger pandas - Yang-Guan (male), Xin Yue (female) and Na Na (female), all aged 4 and sharing an “apartment” - two are half-siblings, having been sired by that stud daddy from Wolong, Pan Pan, who’d also fathered Bai Yun with Dong Dong, which makes Dong Dong the stepmother to these two half-siblings. What a small world of giant pandas!
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Posted on 13 October 2007 @ 00:19 in The Working Life
Yesterday marked my final, final break with my former employer. Even though I’d left them at the end of June, I still had some ties with them as a minor shareholder. Well, not anymore - I sold all my shares yesterday afternoon, at a price that should keep me out of financial mischief for a while.
I was actually planning to convert my shares to the new company’s (a merged entity comprising three companies). The exchange exercise was supposed to be around this time, and I have been waiting to receive the forms to do the necessary. Then my sister called to say our remisier had called to tell her about the exchange exercise and had recommended that I sell the shares, especially since the deadline is the 17th and it’s a long weekend and I still haven’t received the forms and I may end up missing the deadline, etc. So I said okay, ask the remisier what I need to do to sell my shares.
Apparently, nothing. Cuz yesterday evening, when I saw my sister, she said my shares had already been sold.
I’d actually wanted to keep the shares into the new company for sentimental reasons. I’ve owned them for almost as long as I’ve worked in the company. Through the years, looking at the shares’ wild swings between high-high and low-low, I’d sometimes lamented not selling when the price was good, but my sister would scold me and say this particular company’s shares is to keep, not sell. But since it’s not going to be the same company for too long, now seemed to be a good time to sell, especially as the price is right.
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Posted on 10 October 2007 @ 21:46 in Writing
I have an article in the October 2007 issue of Pandas International’s newsletter. It’s a first-person account of how I got to volunteer at Wolong, and is really more about meeting my panda daughter than the actual volunteer work. That aspect is covered by the other first-person account in the same issue, so I guess the two articles balance each other out. Indeed, the whole issue focuses on volunteer work in Wolong.
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Posted on 7 October 2007 @ 21:59 in Writing
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I am participating again this year. This will be my 6th NaNoWriMo.
Years completed:
2003, 2004, 2005
Years didn’t complete:
2002, 2006
I will be using last year’s story, but starting from scratch. This morning, I did some background work and came up with a rather neat storyline.
And no, I won’t be travelling next month. That was the reason I didn’t complete last year. I was travelling and not disciplined enough to write in the evenings (I thought I would).
Onward, November! |
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Posted on 4 October 2007 @ 16:04 in Stress Busters
As the loner among the 2006 Wolong cubs, Yoong Ping, my panda daughter, likes to hang out by herself and often in the same spot, and having seen in person where she likes to hang out, I can see her on the Wolong webcam most days!
Here she is, on her favourite perch.
If you’d like to visit with her and the rest of the Wolong 1-year-olds, here’s the link:
Wolong PandaCam
Login and password is “guest” .
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Posted on 4 October 2007 @ 15:41 in Stress Busters
Malaysia Airlines used to operate direct flights to Chengdu. Used to, but not by the time I was ready for my dream-of-a-lifetime panda trip. But it did have direct flights to other Chinese cities that have direct flights, but on a different airline, to Chengdu.
Which city to fly into? The decision was made for me when I found out that Shi Shi was at Guangzhou Zoo. I would fly into Guangzhou via Malaysia Airlines, stay a couple of days, visit him at the zoo and then fly onto Chengdu via Air China.
Shi Shi, whose name means “Rock” , was a wild-born giant panda rescued and taken to the Wolong Giant Panda Research Centre after being critically wounded in a fight with another male panda. Because of his injuries, he could not be returned to the wild, but was instead chosen to go to San Diego Zoo as part of a research loan.
In the history of giant pandas, Shi Shi holds a special place for being the father of Hua Mei, the first giant panda to be born and to survive to adulthood in the United States. Due to a repeated lack of interest in his female partner, he “mated” with Bai Yun through artificial insemination, a technique that was relatively new for giant panda breeding in the late 1990s. As someone said, thanks to the miracle of AI, San Diego Zoo was able to have a giant panda cub, and Shi Shi was able to become a father, something that probably would not have happened in the wild. Hua Mei is his only known offspring; through her, he went on to become a grandfather three times so far - in 2004, 2005 and 2007.
Earlier this year, there were rumours that Shi Shi had died. Then someone posted on the San Diego Zoo pandablog that he was alive and living in Guangzhou Zoo. I had to make a stop in Guangzhou to see him again.
I’d first seen Shi Shi in person in 2001. One of my favourite pictures from that trip, taken by my friend Bob Lum, shows him focused on his food despite the presence of a bird in his space.
I got ready for my trip, and in my luggage was an 8×10 enlargement of this picture which I hoped to present to his keepers at Guangzhou Zoo.
In Guangzhou, I had a bit of problem arranging transport to the zoo until one of the reception staff at the hotel helped me to hire a taxi for the day.
At the zoo, I was a little nervous about finding the giant panda habitat, but I needn’t have. As I strolled towards Shi Shi’s corner of Guangzhou Zoo, I was greeted by one of many bamboo groves surrounding his home.
Further on, a large poster stood at the entrance, with general information about giant pandas and specific information about Shi Shi, in particular his adoption by a Japanese lady who visits him every year.
She is featured in the poster holding paws with him.
As the only giant panda in the zoo, Shi Shi has his own house surrounded on three sides by an outdoor yard. Unfortunately, as I was to confirm with his keeper, he is now totally blind and not allowed to go outdoors in case he can’t find his way back in again. But there is ample space in his indoor enclosure, which he roams with ease and familiarity.
I’d heard about his blindness and how his keepers would bang his metal food dish on the floor so he would know where it is. I’d thought they would do this at a distance for him to walk to his dish. However, as I was to see and hear for myself during my visit with Shi Shi, the keeper went right up beside him to put the dish down with a bang so he would know his food and water has arrived next to him.
Despite his advanced age - he’s now in his 30s - Shi Shi is still a beautiful giant panda, with only a hint of his age when he walks.
I was grateful to have been able to see Shi Shi in person once again, and to take some pictures to share with my panda pals at Pandas Unlimited. I was also able to have a nice chat with one of his two keepers, and to present to her, a picture of a younger Shi Shi during his time at San Diego Zoo.
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