When a patient in a make-shift hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in central China's Hubei Province, made a wish on social media platform WeChat, that he wanted to see giant pandas when he's recovered, he never thought that someone would take that seriously and work to make his wish come true.

Well, Zhang Zhihe did. He is the director of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

After hearing about the wish, he decided to make videos of the fluffy animal in black and white and then show them to the patients, in a bid to bring joy and strength to them.

The project began on Sunday when Zhang and his team chose Cheng Lang, a panda known for her toughness, to be the star in the video. Cheng Lang was the lightest giant panda baby at birth in the world. She was born only 42.8 grams in June and was about the size of a human thumb, but now, she has grown into a healthy female panda weighing 18.7 kg.

"When she drank milk for the first time, Cheng Lang displayed a strong sense for survival," said a member of Zhang's team. "This is why we chose her to be the leading character in the video: We want her to bring comfort, strength and confidence to the patients suffering from the virus infection."

The first video took 36 hours to make and will be presented to the patients soon.

"Besides the video, we also plan to do a live-streaming session for the patients," said Zhang. "We hope to give inspiration to people through the images of the warm, cute pandas."

The number of captive pandas stood at 600 globally as of November last year. There are less than 2,000 pandas living in the wild, mostly in the provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi.

For more:

Relief as tiny newborn panda cub gains weight to survive

(All images via VCG)

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at nature@cgtn.com)