By Wang Wei

On a visit to Bifengxia Base in Ya'an City, the reporter meets many foreign volunteers. Of various professions and from different countries, their presence adorns the trip.

"If I were a panda and they kept me, I would like to stay here."

Lisette Carcsen is a designer of enclosures for animals in captivity from LC. Gazebo in Denmark. Due to the requirements of a study, she came to Bifengxia base alone in early April and will leave here on May 1.

Lisette Carcsen, a designer of enclosures for animals in captivity from LC. Gazebo in Denmark, was interviewed by China.org.cn at Bifengxia Base in Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, on April 28, 2009. She has been working there as a volunteer since early April. [China.org.cn]

For the past month she has been working as a volunteer to understand how the pandas live. "It's very important to know how animals live if you want to do design work for a zoo," she said, "and this place is very nice. Seriously, if I were a panda and they kept me, I would like to stay here."

"By Chinese standards, Bifengxia base is impressive, with a lot of space. Not all of the pandas can be accessed and seen by tourists. Some of the pandas are kept in places where they can be left alone."

Carcsen spoke to China.org.cn with great admiration. Her broad smile and excitement testified to her pleasant spell of volunteer work here.

"As a volunteer, you do start like an animal keeper. You do the same things – you call them, clean them in the morning, feed them like six times, and they also feed them at night of course, but that's not my responsibility. And then, once the animals know me, I will be able to do the job alone."

"You could see they did not know me when I arrived. In the beginning, one female would go away like this and eat the food I gave her at other place. But now, she will stay there and eat beside me," Carcsen smiled happily, imitating the panda with cute motions.

According to Carcsen, she applied for the volunteer work through a company from England. "It's not difficult to apply at all. Anyone can come, and it actually depends on money. There are various programs, like the program I went with, through which China invites people to come and to learn what a panda is like and how to work with the pandas."

"I should have gone to the Wolong nature reserve," she said with regret. "However, I was told that I could not go because after the earthquake things are not so great there."

Carcsen finished off by saying that she will talk to more friends about the base when she goes back to Denmark.

 "We like Wolong. We miss Wolong."

At the Panda Kindergarten in Bifengxia base, the reporter met three more foreign volunteers: Amanda Bright from England, Lynne Adelman from California, USA and Pam DeNeve from South Carolina, USA.

Pam DeNeve (L) from South Carolina, USA and Lynne Adelman (R) from California, USA were interviewed by China.org.cn at Bifengxia Base in Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, on April 28, 2009. [China.org.cn]

They have been working at the base since April 23. "We are all animal lovers," said Bright. "We can get to know more about pandas by working here with these breeders. Otherwise, pandas are just pandas, we know nothing about them."

Bright also shared her daily volunteer work with the reporter. "We've been cleaning the pandas' enclosures and putting out fresh bamboo for them, and later in the day we go and give them what they call 'panda bread', carrots and apples. In the afternoon, we put out more fresh bamboo and we also give them bamboo shoots."

"This kind of work goes on only under the supervision of the panda master," DeNeve smiled and said.

This is in fact their second stint as panda volunteers. "We went to Wolong in 2007 and all the pandas came here after the earthquake, so we wanted to see the people and the pandas we worked with in Wolong, to see if they were safe."

"We all met in Wolong together," said Adelman, "but we haven't been to Wolong since the earthquake."

Referring to Wolong, all three were quite excited. "We miss Wolong. We'll go back there when it reopens in two or three years. The pandas are beautiful. The people there really love pandas. They care for pandas a lot and it's very nice to see."

According to Bright, there is a big difference between Wolong and Bifengxia base. "Wolong is smaller. The workers there are a lot closer together and pandas are a lot closer. It is very quiet, very peaceful and beautiful. Bifengxia base, on the contrary, is big and noisy. It's nice, but we like Wolong."

"The volunteer work at Wolong was a little bit harder for us. Basically, because we had to pull a lot of carts. We don't do that here, they use trucks," Adelman said.

"We had more contact with pandas at Wolong than here," DeNeve added.

Words from the bottom of their heart show that they really enjoy their volunteer work with the cute pandas. In spite of the devastating earthquake, hope underlies everyone's heart, including the foreigners.

According to the staff at Bifengxia base, the Wolong Panda Club is responsible for the reception and management of volunteers. The Wolong Panda Club, a green social group founded in 1992, works as the main access channel for the public to learn more about giant pandas. With "Help Us, Help Giant Pandas" as their slogan, they call on more people to protect pandas and their habitat.