One drizzly morning at the Bifengxia reserve, mostly Chinese visitors roamed the grounds watching the placid, slow-moving creatures as they paced and munched on bamboo leaves and shoots. The only foreign tourists there seemed to be the 11 other members of my group. Many foreigners are still avoiding Sichuan, reluctant to come here because of the earthquake and its many ensuing aftershocks, although this part of the province suffered little, if any, visible damage.

My fellow travelers all opted to pay 500 yuan ($73) to sit next to or hold a panda for about a minute, or 1,000 yuan ($147) to "play with" a handful of the bears in an enclosed area for four to five minutes. Before coming into contact with the pandas, they had to put on blue plastic gowns, shoe covers and gloves. Having to cover up to such a degree prompted one small Australian girl to ask why she needed to have her hands spritzed clean and wear the gloves. "So you don't get the bears dirty," I told her.

In any case, I don't think the pandas would have minded a little dirt. After all, they didn't mind soiling their fur with their wet armbands many, many years ago at the funeral of the compassionate Tibetan girl who lost her life trying to save one of the precious and benevolent animals.

The writer is an American who lives and works in Beijing.