We had hoped to get to the Wolong Panda Reserve, but the roads, damaged by the 12.V.2008 Wenchuan earthquake (mganitude 8.0) and more recently by heavy rains and flooding, were not passable. We re-routed to Beichuan, which was the city closest to the epicenter of the earthquake, the ruins of which have been left standing as a memorial to the >87,000 people who died and > 15,000,000 who were displaced and relocated.
We did pass through what had been panda reserve lands, but which now, more than eight years after the earthquake, have few, if any, pandas remaining. All the pandas that had been at the Wolong breeding center were relocated after the earthquake to Chengdu (see yesterday’s post, below).
click on the poem to view/download a pdf version
The Unbalanced Ecologist 
Love your Blogs:the food photos, the countryside, the lights and decorations, your writing, you as a panda face; but this visual poetic form representing the earthquake takes my breath away.
Mom
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Enjoying your posts very much. It saddens me to hear that the earthquake damage limits travel to Wolong. I was in Dujiangyan City in 2006. It was such a beautiful, peaceful, and delicious city [as in the range of food and restaurants] that I want to vacation there. The earthquake hit home. The botanical garden that hosted me, West China Subalpine Botanical Garden, lost family. I was lucky to work in Longxi-Hongkou nature reserve. All we saw were monkeys [and some great trees]. Looks like you are having a massive time!
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