Serving the construction of the Giant Panda National Park and deeply integrating the national treasure's culture with the tea, liquor and bamboo crafts industries - these efforts are accelerating in Ya'an, the hometown of both pandas and tea.
On August 9, the 4th Member Congress of the Sichuan Provincial Association for the Promotion of Giant Panda Ecology and Culture was held in Ya'an. More than 100 members, experts and scholars from social organizations and conservation units across Beijing, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei, Sichuan and Chongqing attended, jointly reviewing five years of achievements and planning for the next five. The congress elected the 4th Council and Supervisory Board, and presented plaques to newly joined group members.
Reviewing the past five years, the Association has continuously built the "Panda Lecture Hall" science education brand, with the annual "Top 10 Global Giant Panda News" selection becoming one of the industry's most authoritative annual reviews. The introduction of advanced digital technology has given panda culture a "cyber" expression: the Association promoted the launch of the "Panda Metaverse Ecological Experience Space," while member units developed the "Panda·1869" XR experience show that lets audiences put on a headset and travel back to Ya'an over 150 years ago. Innovative works such as "Panda·Chiyan" virtual-real interactive pieces and the "Culture Ambassador Giant Panda" AI video gave panda culture its first "cyber" voice. Meanwhile, the "Encountering China" Chinese culture exhibition traveled to the Paris Book Festival in France, carrying the panda's "voice" across mountains and seas.
Even more noteworthy, the Association found a new path of "planting panda culture into industry." At the foot of Mengding Mountain, Zhouji Panda Liquor was born and later won a "Double Gold Award" at an international competition. Products such as "Panda Sweet Tea," Panda Bamboo Furniture, Panda Bamboo Shoots and the Panda Gourmet Banquet went from drawings to reality and entered the market, with panda-themed hotels, supermarkets and panda wonderstone galleries opening in various places. The Association also established multiple integrated development bases, deepening the fusion of panda culture with the catering, tea, liquor and bamboo crafts industries and incubating a batch of distinctive cultural creative products - turning cultural power into industrial strength.
"Panda Sweet Tea," one of the representative products of panda culture industrialization, ingeniously blends the national treasure legend with centuries of tea heritage - resonating strongly with Panda Tea, the ecological tea brand rooted in Ya'an's Mengding Mountain. Panda Tea's tea gardens lie in the core giant panda habitat, adhering to a zero-chemical-fertilizer, zero-pesticide ecological cultivation model and pioneering the patented "Panda Manure Fertilization Panda Tea" technology that deeply integrates the national treasure with millennia-old tea culture. Founder Mr. An Yanshi infuses the brand with unique cultural DNA through his environmental Chinese-character panda calligraphy, making Panda Tea not just an ecological tea, but a cultural tea and an intellectual property tea.
Looking ahead, the new council will continue focusing on core research, strengthening science communication and deepening the integration of panda culture with various industries, empowered by digital technologies such as AI and XR. As an ecological tea brand of the "Panda + Tea" dual IP, Panda Tea will continue using tea as a bridge, letting this ecological tea from the national treasure's hometown carry its fragrance across China and to the world.
(Sources: Ya'an Daily, Ya'an Municipal People's Government website, Toutiao "Eco Ya'an"; cover image generated by AI.)
