CHENGDU, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) — Deep within the mountains of southwest China’s Sichuan Province stands a Catholic church that appears like a standard wood Chinese courtyard home, but its inside follows Gothic design.
Visitors flock to the Dengchigou church in Baoxing County year-round, however most aren’t there to hope. They come for the enormous panda, an animal that continues to form the recollections, identification and financial profile of the area.
In 1869, French missionary and naturalist Armand David arrived in Muping, as Baoxing was then known as, and spent greater than eight months on the Dengchigou church. There, he encountered an animal identified domestically because the “black-and-white bear,” which was discovered to belong to a species completely new to science — the enormous panda.
For Li Yunjun, 48, who grew up in these mountains, big pandas have at all times been a part of life. He recollects how his mother and father’ era rescued ravenous pandas throughout widespread bamboo flowering within the Nineteen Eighties, carrying weakened animals on makeshift stretchers for therapy.
Back then, wild pandas often wandered close to villagers’ houses seeking meals. “If one came to our home looking for food, we’d just let it eat whatever it wanted,” Li mentioned.
Li and different villagers have been relocated from the mountains to a brand new village in 2016, however pandas nonetheless often paid a go to. In July 2021, villagers noticed one close to a riverbank and watched from a distance with out disturbing it. The animal finally returned to the forest.
If a panda is discovered injured or in poor health, villagers report it to native authorities, who organize for consultants to look at the animal earlier than it’s taken by “panda ambulance” to a veterinary hospital, Li mentioned.
The peaceable encounters distinction with a darker chapter of the panda’s historical past, documented on the Dengchigou church, a part of which now serves as the enormous panda origins museum.
Among its reveals are images of Western expeditions within the Twenties and Thirties, when pandas have been hunted for international museum collections.
The pictures recall an period of international aggression and home turmoil in China, when one other chapter of historical past was unfolding in the identical mountains.
In June 1935, the Communist Party of China (CPC)-led Red Army reached Baoxing after crossing the Dadu River and capturing the Luding Bridge. The troopers then climbed Jiajin Mountain, the primary main snow-capped mountain on their Long March.
The Long March, an epic army trek from 1934 to 1936, noticed Red Army troops cross mountains and marshlands whereas battling better-armed Kuomintang forces, some marching so far as 12,500 kilometers.
The journey preserved the Red Army and gave the CPC a brand new foothold in northwest China, from which it constructed up its power, fought again towards invading Japanese troops and finally toppled the corrupt Kuomintang regime, resulting in the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
There are not any identified information of Red Army troopers encountering big pandas, however the animals, too, would see their fortunes change dramatically within the a long time forward.
For years, Baoxing relied closely on white marble mining, logging and small hydropower tasks, which offered jobs however put stress on the surroundings.
That improvement mannequin started to shift in 1998 when China banned business logging in pure forests alongside the higher Yangtze River. Dan Zhaohui, who had constructed roads for timber transport in Baoxing, joined reforestation efforts.
Three years later, he turned a forest ranger, patrolling 1,250 hectares of mountainous terrain. “Over the years, I have encountered giant pandas, golden snub-nosed monkeys and other wildlife,” he mentioned. “The animals have come back.”
Decades of conservation efforts have helped convey big pandas again from the brink. Sichuan’s wild panda inhabitants rose from 909 within the Nineteen Eighties to 1,387 within the fourth nationwide survey launched in 2015, whereas their habitat expanded to greater than 2 million hectares. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has reclassified the enormous panda from “endangered” to “vulnerable.”
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, panda mascot Bing Dwen Dwen turned a sensation, with souvenirs rapidly promoting out. Once hunted for international museum collections, big pandas have change into a worldwide image of friendship and conservation.
Protecting the animals and their habitat, nevertheless, has required tough financial trade-offs.
Nearly 40 p.c of Ya’an, the town that administers Baoxing, now lies contained in the Giant Panda National Park. In Baoxing itself, greater than 80 p.c of the territory is included within the park.
The closure of mines and small hydropower services in protected areas has compelled Baoxing to hunt new sources of development.
“The transition has been painful, but moving away from the old economic model is necessary. We must find new paths toward greener, higher-quality development,” mentioned Li Lun, director of Baoxing County’s bureau of financial system, commerce and know-how.
Tourism has emerged as a supply of development. In 2025, Baoxing acquired 4.63 million vacationer visits, up 10.28 p.c 12 months on 12 months, whereas tourism income rose 10.41 p.c to 4.09 billion yuan (about 608.7 million U.S. {dollars}), in line with native authorities.
For Li Yunjun, the shift has meant abandoning the marble vans he as soon as drove by way of the mountains.
He used to earn about 60,000 to 70,000 yuan a 12 months hauling marble. He remembers the mud from blasting and the muddy Baoxing River through the mining increase.
In 2016, he offered his truck and opened a guesthouse in Dengchigou. Its seven rooms are sometimes booked forward of holidays, and his household’s annual revenue now exceeds 100,000 yuan.
“Instead of hauling stone out of the mountains, I now welcome visitors drawn by giant pandas and the surrounding forests,” he mentioned.
But pandas aren’t the one draw for vacationers to Baoxing. Many additionally come to hint the Long March. The Memorial Hall of the Red Army Crossing Jiajin Mountain receives over 300,000 visits yearly, in line with information He Mengyu.
She mentioned extra pupil teams are coming from outdoors Sichuan, whereas international guests who come for the pandas typically lengthen their journeys to Long March websites too. Some even ask the place they’ll attempt making the straw sandals as soon as worn by Red Army troopers, an expertise obtainable in Dengchigou.
Jiajin Mountain, on the border of Baoxing and Xiaojin counties, has change into a mountaineering vacation spot for outside fans. As of August 2026, the Jiajin Mountain scenic space had recorded 13,327 vacationer visits to date this 12 months, up 1.45 p.c 12 months on 12 months.
For Li Yunjun, the transformation is seen a lot nearer to residence.
“The Baoxing River has become clear again,” he mentioned. “The mountains are still the same, but the way we live with them has changed.”