Panda video from NW China delights netizens

A recent video about a panda playing with its feeder at the panda research center in Northwest China's Shaanxi province has won a lot of affection from internet users.

The male panda, named Jiajia, 10 months old, performed "sit-ups" with the help of his feeder at a garden of the Qinling Panda Research Center in Zhouzhi county, according to the video released by Xinhua News Agency.

Jiajia also climbed onto the feeder's back or held the feeder's arm or leg, as if pleading with the feeder to play with him. Whatever he was doing, Jiajia always seemed to be grinning and very happy.

The video of this naughty and energetic little one has attracted the attention of great numbers of Chinese internet users, with many leaving comments like "so cute!", "I also want a hug from Jiajia" and "I'm jealous of the feeder because she has the company of such a lovely little animal."

When mentioning a panda, many people might first think of Southwest China's Sichuan province and its capital Chengdu city, the site of China's largest panda breeding and research center. Very few people know that there are also pandas in the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi province.

Different from the subtype of pandas in Sichuan, which have relatively sharp faces and look more like bears, pandas in Shaanxi have rounder heads and look more like cats.

Statistics from the latest national census of pandas in 2015 showed that there are at least 345 pandas living in the Qinling Mountains, accounting for 17 percent of the animal's entire population in the country.

Among them, 28 pandas, including the only brown one in the world, are well fed and protected at the Qinling Panda Research Center near Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, making the center the fourth-largest panda breeding base in China.

The center, established in June 2018 and covering 287 hectares, is scheduled to open to the public before the end of the year.