Photo of the first giant panda museum in Hongya county, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Photo:IC

 The first giant panda museum in Hongya county, Southwest China's Sichuan Province will offer visitors an immersive experience by integrating cutting-edge technologies with the panda's natural habitat, and help raise awareness of the protection of pandas and the environment. 

The museum has completed its equipment adjustment and is expected to open to the public in the near future, the Global Times learned from a staffer surnamed Yang at the operator of the Giant Panda National Park Wawushan Giant Panda Museum on Sunday. 

With cutting-edge technologies such as autostereoscopy and augmented reality, the museum provides an interactive experience for museum-goers, who will have an immersive experience of the natural habitat where pandas live and learn about pandas' development history and their living habits. 

Adhering to the core ideas of education, research and science promotion, the museum is expected to arouse people's awareness of the protection of giant pandas and the natural environment, as well as to serve as a major venue to display the natural environment, carry out education and provide ecological experience services.
 
Jumping out of the traditional narratives, the museum tells of the mysteries of the panda species and the ecological stories of the Giant Panda National Park Wawushan area, from the perspective of giant pandas. 

The planning of the museum exhibition is also different from usual, with the two lines of entertainment and science promotion having been combined. 

With a variety of multimedia interactive devices such as autostereoscopy, water screen projection and an LED infrared sensor system combined with representative plants in Wawushan Mountain, the museum shows the environment and jungle habitat in an artistic form. 

The museum, with an area of 2,555.34 square meters, including its exhibition hall, experience hall, lecture hall and other facilities, is located at the foot of Wawushan Mountain, the national forest park and scenic spot. 

Among the five national parks of China's national park system officially established on October 12, 2021, the Giant Panda National Park is the only one named after a single species. The park, covering 27,134 square kilometers across Southwest China's Sichuan and Northwest China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, is a concentrated distribution area and main breeding habitat for wild pandas. 

The Giant Panda National Park has ensured the effective protection of 72 percent of the wild giant pandas in China by connecting 73 separate natural reserves and 13 local habitats. 

A total of 13 pandas live at the Wawushan area of the national park, which covers an area of 512 square kilometers. 

According to Duan Zhaogang, director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, the population of giant pandas living in their native habitat in China has grown to 1,864 from 1,114 in the 1980s, with the area of protected panda habitats increasing significantly, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency.

Global Times