Dedication This book was written for children everywhere who love animals and especially for William, Daniel and Lucas, my source of inspiration. Copyright 2012 Patricia Eireann Holz Author’s contact: [email protected] All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data is available. Control Number: 2012933615 ISBN 978-0-98600 15-0-5 ISBN 978-0-98600 15-1-2 (e-book) ISBN 978-0-98600 15-2-9 (epdf) Published by Washington International Publishers Printed in the United States by Bookmasters, Inc. 30 Amberwood Parkway, Ashland, OH 44805 April 2012 Job #D9540 To order: 800-247-6553 China’s Goodwill Ambassador Tai Shan the Panda Patricia Eireann Holz written by Tabitha Benedict Aaron illustrated by T ai Shan, a four year-old panda, woke up in the National Zoo in Washington, DC. It was Sunday morning, sunlight streamed across snow-covered ground making everything sparkle around him. He felt like running and playing, but he was caged and couldn’t run far. Even worse, he had nobody to play with. His parents, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, were giant pandas, much bigger than Tai Shan. He could see them standing near the end of the cage chatting. They didn’t look in the mood to play. He felt like climbing on his mother’s back, but decided he shouldn’t interrupt his parents’ conversation. At that moment bells began chiming from nearby Washington National Cathedral. Tai Shan loved their sound, it made him happy. He lay down and rolled over and over, letting the joy of the bells rain down on him. When the bells stopped ringing the zoo gates opened, and children streamed in. He heard them shouting as they came toward him. He sat up on his back legs holding an apple in one paw. “Come and look at the panda eating the apple.” He could hear kids calling other kids, “William, Daniel, Lucas, Teagan and Chloe, come and see the panda.” The children ran to him, they stood with their fingers curled around the wire fence, watching Tai Shan’s every move. “Ohhh, he’s like a live teddy bear!” shouted William, “Oh Mommy, wouldn’t it be great to have a pet panda just like Tai Shan.” “It would be great, but it’s not possible,” said his mother. “You can only have toy pandas because there are very few pandas left in the world, and they all live in China.” She explained that there are only about 1,000 left in the whole world because people tear down bamboo forests to build houses and roads, and this takes away all the bamboo that pandas need to grow and survive. She said that bamboo is just as important to a panda as milk is to a baby. They need lots of bamboo because they eat 20 to 40 lbs. every day. She told the children that if pandas don’t have bamboo to eat they will not survive. None of the children, not even Tai Shan himself, knew how special he was about to become. He was going to embark on a great adventure. He would soon leave the Washington Zoo to go to Sichuan province in China. In Sichuan at the Wolong Nature Reserve, Tai Shan would be trained to save baby pandas lost in the forest. He would travel by himself, without his parents. They would follow him to China later. When the zoo closed and all the children went home, Tai Shan’s mother called him to come and listen to what his parents had to tell him. He listened carefully as they told him about the big adventure that would take him all the way to China to be with many more pandas. They said there would be other pandas to play with, that he would be well looked after by his aunts and uncles, and that he would be happy in China. They said it was very important for him to go to China to help find hungry pandas wandering in the forest. They would be very proud of him for doing it. Tai Shan was happy to hear this, but he had a lot of questions. He wondered if it would be a long, long walk to China. His eyes grew bigger and bigger until he cried out, “No, I can’t go. I’ll be too tired walking.” “Silly,” said his mother laughing, “You won’t walk. You will fly on a jet plane.” “A plane, what’s that?” he asked, looking very frightened. I think you know what a plane looks like,” said his father. “You’ve seen them and heard them crossing the sky every day, making a big, loud noise.” “Ohhh, that’s scary,” he exclaimed. “What if it falls out of the sky with me inside?” Just thinking about it made him shiver with fright. His mother explained: “Lots of animals fly on planes. Your father and I came on a plane from the same place you are going in Wolong. Even the very first pandas came to America on a plane in 1972. They were sent as gifts of friendship from the Chinese people to the American people. Everyone loved them so much that ever since that time we have all become goodwill ambassadors for peace and friendship between China and America.” Tai Shan was a bit afraid to go on a plane, but if his parents came to America on a plane, he would try to be brave so he could also make the trip. “What’s an ambassador?” he asked curiously. “An ambassador has a very important job,” said his father. “An ambassador brings friendship and good feelings from one country to another. The world is a big place with many countries spread across the earth. When countries are far apart, you may not know even one person in another country. You won’t know what the country looks like. Is it beautiful, does it have mountains? Unless you travel or make friends from other countries, you won’t know what kind of food they eat, what kind of music they like, what language they speak, or how it feels to live in that country. There is so much you won’t know. So an ambassador’s job is to encourage friendship by helping people know more about each other.” His father paused a moment to think. Then he said, “It’s like all of us in the zoo. We don’t live far from each other, but we don’t even know our neighbors. We could share nice stories if we did,” he said wistfully. Tai Shan was glad his father knew about so many things. He asked his parents about Sichuan province in China. His parents told him that Sichuan means Land of Abundance. It has majestic mountains with high peaks covered in snow in the winter, lakes of many colors, and millions of wildflowers in summer. It has ancient villages, colorful temples, and hot springs where people take healing baths. It all sounded nice to him. The more he heard, the better he felt. For a moment he closed his eyes and imagined himself sitting on top of a mountain. Tai Shan was ready for a new adventure, and if there were other little pandas to play with, he would not be lonesome. He so loved to run and play and climb trees. His parents said there would be lots of trees to climb. Before going on the long trip to China, Tai Shan knew there was one important thing he had to do. Like a good ambassador, he must say goodbye to his friends — Leonardo, the lion, Miss Sniffy, the giraffe, and a special elephant, Elemorphoriticus. About a year ago he had become very curious about the other animals,