Snooker players visit Panda Base in Chengdu

World top snooker players who are in Chengdu for the inaugural International Championship paid a visit to the city's world renowned Panda Breeding Base on Sunday.

Panda is the name card of Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province which has a panda base with more than 80 of the black-and-white bears.

Peter Ebdon, Stuart Bingham, Dominic Dale, Mark Davis and Robert Milkins enjoyed the opportunity to watch from up close one of the world's most endangered species. Ebdon's wife was even offered a chance to cuddle a 14-month old bear.

Shaun Murphy didn't take part in the trip because of a collision with his first-round match, but he expressed willingness to visit Panda later.

"I'm looking forward to going to see the panda in the following days, my girlfriend told me to look at and take pictures with them," said Murphy after he swept Andrew Higginson 6-0 in the first round.

The inaugural International Championship, the richest tournament ever staged in China with prize money of 600,000 pounds, will run through Nov. 4.

The population of the giant pandas in the wild is estimated to be around 1,600, a sharp increase from the figure of 1,000 in the 1970s.