Construction began in October of 2002 on the China Research & Conservation Center for the Giant Panda, Bifengxia Panda Center at Ya’an City, Sichuan Province. The Center opened in the fall of 2003.

This Panda base is a branch of the China Conservation & Research Center for the Giant Panda, (CCRCGP) Wolong Nature Center, under the Department of Forestry.

Before construction, the Bifengxia base was maiden forest, no power, no road and no housing. Dr. Tang Chunxiang, Assistant Director and Chief Veterinarian, described the base as a "blank paper, waiting for great events to occur."

In Chinese, Bifengxia means Green Peak Canyon, and is about 5 miles from Ya’an City in the Bifeng Gorge.

The Bifengxia base was established as a safeguard for the captive Giant Panda population at the Wolong Center.  The threat of an outbreak of disease or infection was of great concern.  If an epidemic was to occur among the captive pandas at the Wolong Center, it could have destroyed the entire population.

Splitting the captive pandas of Wolong into two separate populations was planned to prevent this from occurring.  In addition, Wolong was becoming crowded and more space was needed for the pandas. 

Bifengxia was planned to house mostly sub-adults, not yet in the breeding program and senior pandas, too old for breeding, but a small breeding area was constructed in addition to the hospital.

Bifengxia has more land so the pandas are spread out into several different areas: Leopard Mountain, New Leopard Mountain, Bai Xiong Ping, Bi Tang (quarantine area), the Kindergarten and nursery, breeding center, Research Center and Hospital and Xiou Xi Tian, the restaurant/hostel.  The panda’s enclosures are large with indoor and outdoor areas.

After the Earthquake of May 2008
As the Earthquake showed, planning for a second center was an excellent decision.

40 pandas were evacuated to the Bifengxia base from Wolong following the earthquake.  Workers began construction of 16 temporary pens and a kindergarten for young pandas. Twenty pens were completed by mid-October for the displaced pandas.  Since the enclosures were large, many could be divided in half to accommodate more pandas.

A breeding center with 14 enclosures was quickly constructed.  Each enclosure has a camera system and is monitored in a control room by staff. Pandas International provided several of these cameras.

NOTE — There is also a Bifengxia Zoo on the way to the panda center with other animals, but it is totally separate.