Over the years, I’ve managed to be in Bifengxia four times on the anniversary of the Wenchuan Earthquake on 12 May – in 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2015. Of the many photos taken on that day in those four years, one photo stood out. That year, 2013, was the 5th anniversary of the earthquake. That year’s 12 May was also Mother’s Day. The two pandas in the photo are my two adopted pandas, Feng Yi and Gong Zhu. They were neighbours in the Old Breeding Centre in May that year, and together gave me a Mother’s Day memory for 12 May 2013. They both went on to give birth in August; Feng Yi at 7 was a first-time time mother giving us Gong Gong while Gong Zhu, a hero mother at 15, had her 11th cub, later named Wu Wen, now in The Netherlands.
My two girls together on Mother’s Day 2013, also the 5th anniversary of the Wenchuan Earthquake
