At the entrance to Beijing zoo there is a big square with stalls along each side which at first glance appear to be stacked with skulls, like a killing fields museum in Cambodia. This is an illusion, induced by the sight of thousands and thousands of small white polyester pandas piled in rows and staring out from the kiosks with big black patches around their eyes.
From all sides as the foreign tourists pass through on the way to see the real thing, the dozens of stall-holders call out: "Panda! Buy panda!" They flog not only cuddly pandas, but an array of merchandise with panda motifs, including T-shirts, mats, gloves, key rings, stickers, hats, handbags, water colours, embroideries, pens, and postcards. There are panda puppets and even panda thermometers.
The real thing sometimes turns out to be a disappointment, if you are looking for action that is. They can be as immobile as their polyester models. The other day, one of the two giant pandas in the rather decrepit panda house was sitting in a corner disdainfully showing its rump, and the other was fast asleep.
Yet there was no doubting the fascination they held for the onlookers, who included a crowd of chattering schoolchildren in bright yellow caps, brought to see what the Chinese call the "big bearcat". There are 102 big bear-cats in captivity, 90 in China and 12 overseas, and they are the biggest draw at the 30 Chinese zoos - and big business.
Unique to China, the panda has become something of a national treasure and the Chinese are desperately worried about the survival of those in confinement and of the 1,000 living in the wild. The number roaming free has been dwindling for years and they are divided into about 20 groups isolated from each other on islands of bamboo-rich mountainside, with the risk of inbreeding.
But the pandas might not breed at all, as their sex-drive is notoriously low. The male giant panda has a tom-thumb penis and often does not know where to put it, so that a bout of love-making can turn into a fight with a frustrated female, resulting in broken limbs.
To make matters worse, the female becomes fertile - and looks for action - only once a year, so if the male cannot be aroused then from its day-long bamboo-munching, it misses the boat. Even if there is a mating, the male's low sperm count may mean the female panda remains cubless.
The Chinese have been using artificial insemination since 1978 to breed pandas in an attempt to save the species from extinction but the survival rate of the cubs has for a long time been very low. The baby pandas, as small as a human hand, have a weak immune system and are often accidentally crushed by their ungainly mothers. And if mothers do not stimulate their bottoms, the newborns do not know how to pass waste.
Chinese experts are now excited about what they regard as a breakthrough in ensuring the survival of the big bear-cats. When a 17-yearold female panda died from skin cancer in September, scientists at the Laboratory of Genetic and Embryo Engineering on Endangered Wildlife removed the panda's ovaries, and cultured the immature eggs in the lab. These were fertilised with seed from a panda sperm bank in Chengdu.
The fertilised egg was accidentally killed by a too-high concentration of carbon dioxide, but the panda specialist, Zhang Anju, believes the first successful in vitro fertilisation is a major development in saving the three-millionyear-old species.
Now some scientists are also looking at the possibility of cloning pandas using the methods which produced Dolly the sheep and Polly the lamb, but the chances of Peter the panda becoming a reality are remote. It will work only if a related species like the black bear can be induced to carry the embryo, which is a long shot. "Cloning is not useful for saving a species because it is essentially a form of asexual reproduction which will shrink the gene pool," said Mr Zhang.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the areas where pandas survive, mostly in Sichuan province, is growing more crowded as human settlement reduces their size. The wild bamboo stocks are being cut down for development.
A panda conference in Chengdu last month was told, for example, that the Wolong reserve has 28 pandas and expects 15 cubs in the next five years but researchers do not know if they will survive being released from captivity. One solution being proposed is the creation of green corridors between the breeding areas to give pandas a greater choice of mate (if they're bothered).
Chinese scientists believe that without their help the panda would die out in 40 to 50 years, and that they now know enough to extend its existence on earth for up to 100 years. If they ultimately fail, then the zoos will be left with nothing but millions of unsold panda dolls.