Wan wants to touch a panda, but since that's prohibited, he'll settle for the next-best thing, a fur-covered replica panda that looks like the real thing through a VR headset.
"Thanks to the construction of a virtual reality panda-themed paradise, visitors will be able to experience something very much like feeling a real panda," said Wan, a photographer from Beijing.
Wan, a dedicated panda enthusiast, has visited Sichuan many times since 2012 to take photos of the animals.
"I have been to the Chengdu panda base and the Dujiangyan base, as well as to the three bases of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. But I have never had the privilege of feeling a panda," he said.
The Chengdu center is preparing to turn the first and second floors of its museum into the VR panda-themed attraction. It is expected to open next year.
The center will work with a high-tech firm in Beijing to provide the VR technology for the experience, according to Chen Cheng, information officer at the center.
"In the paradise there will be pictures of different pandas and bamboo forests. When visitors put on VR eyeglasses, it will all seem real. Pandas will stand up, sit down, eat bamboo or wander in the forests. People will be able to feel and hold the virtual pandas as they would in real life," she said.
As of the end of last year, the Chengdu base was home to 175 captive pandas, according to the latest counts.
VR panda 'paradise' comes to Chengdu
