There are many things in Chengdu that attract people. But for tourists like me, pandas are its top (attract).
So it was a great honour for me (invite) to the not-for-profit Panda Base, where ticket money helps to pay for research. I (allow) to get up close to these cute animals at the 600-acre center. From tomorrow, I will be their UK ambassador (大使). The title will be (official) given to me at a ceremony in London. But my connection with pandas goes back my days on a TV show in the mid-1980s,
I was the first Western TV reporter permitted to film a special unit caring for pandas
(save) from starvation (饿死) in the wild. My duties will include (introduce) British visitors to the 120-plus pandas in Chengdu and others at a research center in the misty mountains of Bifengxia.
During my recent visit, I held a lively three month-old twin that had been refused by his mother. The nursery team switches (交换) him every few (day) with his sister so that while one is being bottle-fed,
other is with their mum—she never doubts.
