Panda keeper witnesses big changes

Zhang Hao was shocked by the endless stream of tourists crowding the paths leading to panda dens when he was on duty at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province during the eight-day National Day holiday, which ended on Oct 8.

"The number of tourists was so big, I told myself tourists could see human beings more clearly than pandas," said Zhang, who has worked as a keeper at the base since his graduation from college as a veterinary medicine major in Wuhan, Hubei province, in 2007.

When Zhang started at the base, most tourists were foreigners and only a few were Chinese.