CHENGDU - China has launched a new giant panda base in Southwest China's Sichuan province to bolster panda breeding, as well as research and international communication on its famed native species, expanding the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) to five sites nationwide.

As part of China's broader push for ecosystem and biodiversity protection, the new facility began trial operations after 13 pandas were relocated on Tuesday. The base covers an area of about 120 hectares in Sichuan's Mianyang city. It is expected to open to visitors next year, once the animals have settled into their new environment.

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"The pandas are a little tense in their new surroundings, but overall they're doing well," said Huang Zhi, who leads the operations of the Mianyang base's preparatory team. To ease the transition, the base has deployed an experienced team to keep close watch over the pandas.

China's fourth national panda survey counted 418 wild giant pandas in Mianyang -- about 22.4 percent of the country's total and the highest number among China's prefecture-level cities.

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Since the 1980s, the CCRCGP has overcome key challenges in captive breeding, growing the population steadily from just six pandas in 1983 to over 380 today.