Giant pandas spend quality family time with cubs

China

Giant pandas spend quality family time with cubs

2026-04-01 17:37 Last Updated At：04-02 12:11

A new video footage released by China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) in southwest China's Sichuan Province offers a heartwarming look into the daily life of giant pandas spending quality time with their cubs.

Captured in mid-March at the center's Wolong Shenshuping base, a panda cub curiously explored its surroundings near its sleeping mother, Fu Feng.

Fu Feng and her twin brother Fu Ban were born on August 7, 2016 in Austria. They returned to China on Dec 4, 2018. In August 2025, Fu Feng successfully gave birth to a pair of twins.

The other cub featured in the other two parts of the video is one of a pigeon pair of cubs born in August 2025 at the CCRCGP to the giant panda Jia Mei.

In the footage, Jia Mei hugged her baby, and gently lifted her baby with her mouth and carried it to a higher spot.

The CCRCGP is a world-leading institution dedicated to the breeding and conservation of the giant panda. The center has established the world's largest captive population of giant pandas and pioneered research on captive breeding and training for rewilding.

The center has established a global platform for promoting international cooperation and exchanges involving 18 zoos from 16 countries and regions, 39 domestic animal breeding institutions, and over 10 scientific research institutes.

Shenzhou-23 astronauts board spaceship ahead of launch

The three astronauts of the Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceflight mission have boarded the spacecraft for a flight to China’s Tiangong space station.

The Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship is scheduled to blast off at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT) from northwest China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

The three Chinese astronauts, commander Zhu Yangzhu, spacecraft pilot Zhang Zhiyuan and payload specialist Lai Ka-ying, climbed aboard the spaceship with the help of technicians.

Following the launch, the astronauts will complete an in-orbit rotation with the outgoing Shenzhou-21 crew, and one of them will conduct a one-year in-orbit stay, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

Notably, astronaut Lai Ka-ying is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program, and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.