The Wolong Nature Reserve, set in the rugged green foothills of the eastern Tibetan Plateau, was established in northern Sichuan in 1963 and became a full-fledged reserve in 1980. With assistance from the World Wildlife Fund, the reserve began housing and breeding pandas and cataloguing the thousands of different species of all kinds that inhabit the reserve.

The reserve was openend up to tourism in the 1980s and at its peak has hosted around 100,000 visitors per year, all of whom come primarily to see, hold and pet the pandas (the price for panda "holding" reportedly went up to about 1000 RMB at one point).

After the 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan, however, the reserve closed down and the pandas were moved to Bifengxia outside of Ya'an city. The Wolong Nature Reserve is currently closed to tourists, but it is still possible to take buses up into the area if you like. It is unclear how the local authorities would react to hikers, but visitors are generally welcome in and around Moxi, Wolong and Wenchuan.

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