By Huang Zhiling and Wang Wei

The Temple of Marquis Wu. Ding Hao

Neil Kelsall, a young tour leader from Manchester in the United Kingdom, took nearly 20 tourists from Britain to the Chengdu Research Center for Giant Panda Breeding in the northern suburbs of this capital of Sichuan province during their one-day stay in the city in late July.

Kelsall, who can write in Chinese, told China Daily that there was much coverage of the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, but members of his group felt Chengdu very safe.

More overseas tourists than in any other part of Chengdu visit the center, the world's only base of its kind in a metropolis.

From July 26 to 27, three pandas were born at the center within 14 hours, a mini baby boom for the rare animals. It was the first time in history that a captive panda population gave birth to so many cubs in such a short period of time. With the birth of the four cubs, the center is now home to 71 pandas - the world's largest captive panda population.

As Chengdu was unscathed in the devastating quake, which killed nearly 70,000 nationwide, its tourism sector picked up the pieces about a month after the quake, the epicenter of which was 92 km away in Wenchuan county.

The average occupancy rate of Chengdu's star hotels has risen to 60 percent and some had reached 80 percent, higher than before the quake, said Deng Gongli, chief of the Chengdu municipal tourism administration.

Since June 14, tour groups from Guiyang, capital of Sichuan's neighboring Guizhou province, Taiwan province and the Netherlands have visited Chengdu.

Deng's administration has signed contracts with numerous travel agencies in different parts of the country to bring more visitors, he said.

Visitors to Chengdu say their trip to the city is quite pleasant this time of year, for fewer visitors are in Chengdu as visitor attractions are not as overcrowded as before.