Pandas frolic in man-made snowfall
It was smoggy and overcast in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Thursday. But visitors to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in the northern suburbs of the city had a pleasant surprise to see a panda mother frolicking in the snow with her two cubs.
Ai Li, the eight-year-old mother, rolled in piles of snow and kept licking it. Her twin male cubs Ai Mi and Ai Lun, born on June 16, 2018, were cautious at the sight of snow at first. They approached it slowly, feeling with their claws or licking it. Finally, they relaxed and rolled on it.
"Chengdu is not as cold as Beijing in winter. It is nothing unusual for the city not to have snowflakes for a decade. Both people and pandas are happy to see the snow," said Chao Kang, a 79-year-old resident.
