My furry family

Editor's note: Mei Yan, born in 1986, has worked at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province for eight years.

I help to feed and care for 50 of the pandas at the breeding base. It's really hard work. Every day, I have prepare a lot of bamboo for them to eat as well as clean up after them. An average adult male can eat up to 50 kilograms of bamboo shoots a day.

It's tough work. Just look at the muscles on my arms - they're bigger than many men's.

If I'm on night shift, I need to feed the panda cubs their milk at 5 am, which is another highly demanding job. Young pandas may look cute, but they have sharp claws and teeth. I'm regularly bitten and scratched.

Still, despite all this, I get a great sense of accomplishment from watching the cubs grow into healthy adults. The pandas are like my family now.

Mei Yan was talking to photographer Lyu Jia.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/02/2016 page4)