{"id":16995,"date":"2025-06-26T18:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T18:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/16995\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T18:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T18:43:13","slug":"china-cans-hotels-red-panda-wake-up-call-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/16995\/","title":{"rendered":"China cans hotel’s red panda ‘wake-up call’ service"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONG KONG \u2014 For fans of the red panda,<\/a> it would have been the ultimate experience \u2014 a wake-up call from one of the furry creatures on your hotel bed. <\/p>\n

But that was until pictures and videos went viral on Chinese social media, prompting a crackdown by authorities in the country. <\/p>\n

In one video verified by NBC News, Huang Wei, who booked the \u201cwake-up call\u201d service at the LocaJoy River & Holiday Hotel in China\u2019s<\/a> southwestern Chongqing city, was filmed partially under his blanket and can be heard telling the staff the panda playing on the bed was \u201creally cute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The creature then eats food placed on the 28-year-old interior design store manager’s hand by a member of the staff. \u201cHe\u2019s not scared of the cold,\u201d the staff member says, adding that its thick fur meant it was not affected by the room\u2019s air conditioning. <\/p>\n

\u201cI usually have a terrible morning temper, but today I\u2019m so happy to be woken up by a red panda,\u201d Wei wrote in a caption on the video that was posted last week on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote. <\/p>\n

In a separate interview via a messaging app, Wei said the red panda stayed at his room for about five minutes, and hotel guests can interact with the animals during a one-hour morning session and 90-minute afternoon session downstairs in the hotel. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s truly a joyful experience to get up close with rare and adorable animals,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

But his original video drew criticism from some of his fellow social media users. <\/p>\n

Red pandas are an endangered species in China, and even though Chongqing is known for both its large panda population and as a hot spot for panda tourism, China’s wildlife protection law states that “safety management measures” must be followed if any wild animals are used for performances.<\/p>\n

Asked for comment, LocaJoy River & Holiday Hotel referred NBC News to Chongqing\u2019s forestry bureau, which in turned called the practice “inappropriate” in a statement, which said it should be “immediately stopped.\u201d <\/p>\n

The company which owns the hotel, the Animal Theme Park of Chongqing Leheledu Travel Co. Ltd., did have a license to breed certain wildlife species, including red pandas, the statement said. <\/p>\n

But, it said, licensed breeding activities must ensure \u201cadequate space for animal activity, proper hygiene and health conditions, qualified personnel,\u201d and hotel staff had violated these regulations. <\/p>\n

The forestry bureau also confirmed the hotel had stopped offering red panda-themed rooms, and the four bears found on the premises had been transferred to a centralized breeding area. <\/p>\n

As of Thursday, there was no listing for the rooms on the hotel’s website although it appeared most were nonetheless animal-themed. <\/p>\n

Dental kits, toiletries, coffee mugs and linen appeared to have cartoonish animals printed on them, pictures posted by previous guests on the booking platform Trip.com showed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG \u2014 For fans of the red panda, it would have been the ultimate experience \u2014 a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-16995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114751144332638638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}