When my friend told me he'd be visiting the pandas the next day (which was the third day of the Chinese New Year), I asked him to help me say hello to those "brothers" and "sisters" of mine. He said they'd grown up. I had no idea just how grown up "grown up" was. Until I saw the pictures today, taken on 21 Jan 09.
When I saw them last Aug, they looked like this -
A few were born just days before I visited, some were probably not born yet. This was my lucky shot. Visitors are not allowed to take photos in the nursery; I think it's for fear that stubborn photographers would use the flash that will fighten the babies. The nurse was massaging the lil un's tummy so that the excrement would pass out of her system as these week-old babies were still incapable of passing motion on their own. But in January, five months later, they looked like these! What cute, cuddly furry balls they are! (^___^*)
A panda cub gazes at the camera before taking a group photo with other twelve cubs born in 2008 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province, January 21 2009. All of them will be greeting the public during the Spring Festival after months of close care in nurseries.
