Photo by Grayson Isenberg.

It’s been a little more than a year and a half since Tai Shan — our iconic Butterstick — boarded a personalized jet for his new life in China. After arriving at Wolong’s Bifengxia Base in Ya’an, Sichuan, and experiencing an awkward first few weeks, Tai has turned into a star, reportedly living large while the District remains frustratingly giant panda cub-less.

That said, we still have quite the soft spot for the big guy. So when we got an email from DCist reader Grayson Isenberg with a first person account of hanging out with Tai in China, well, we kind of freaked out just a teensy little bit.

Writes Isenberg:

So, I just got back from a trip to China where I took 15 students from The Lab School of Washington (where I teach). We visited Shanghai and Beijing, but spent the bulk of our time in Chengdu and Bifengxia where the panda reserves are. Our beloved Tai Shan is at the Bifengxia Panda Base where we were able to see him, and some of our students even got to clean his pen and feed him.

Thought you guys would like to know that he’s doing well — a star even, as many come to look at him and the Chinese are very proud of him.

That’s our boy! Isenberg told us that, while the class’ trip was organized through a travel agency, “anyone can go to the Bifengxia base and tour.”

“Volunteering to feed or interact requires more work,” though, and “the easiest way is to arrange through Pandas International, in Colorado,” says Isenberg. “Other than that, just to walk up and see him, it’s as simple as paying the daily admission price to the Panda Reserve.”

And really, having the chance to see Butterstick in this kind of pose again seems worth the cost of travelling to China, doesn’t it?

Photo by Grayson Isenberg.