The first pictorial annual of giant pandas in the world Photo: Courtesy of Office of Local Records of Sichuan Province

The world's first officially compiled pictorial annual of giant pandas in both Chinese and English has been published, China News Agency reported on Wednesday. 

Featuring nearly 500 rare photos, the panda pictorial annual was jointly compiled by the Office Local Records and the Forestry and Grassland Administration of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, with the aim of using simple language and abundant pictures to demonstrate the process of how pandas have gone from a state of being endangered to becoming increasingly close to humans, according to the report.

The pictorial annual is made up of six chapters: panda varieties, living, environment, research, protection and culture. Each chapter has four to six independent but connected subtitles. In order to compensate for the limited information due to the lack of space, each subtitle comes with simple and precise knowledge points and several pictures.

The first pictorial annual of giant pandas in the world Photo: Courtesy of Office of Local Records of Sichuan Province

There are a total of 250,000 words in almost 400 pages in the book. The 500 pictures were obtained through directed searches and open solicitation, including those from historical materials, paintings created by inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, and the latest scientific research conducted by Chinese scientists and China's national nature reserves. All these pictures make the book professional while easy to understand and precise while interesting.

The year 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the scientific discovery of pandas. In order to publicize pandas to the world, the book will be translated into various languages and be made available all over the world. The book is priced at 520 yuan ($75), according to the local records office.