German panda lover Malanie feeds a panda with which she celebrates the birthday on the same day. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A group of panda fans from Europe got up close and personal with giant pandas in the animal's home - Southwest China's Sichuan province, during a unique tour at the start of ancient Silk Road.

The group of 12 tourists from the UK, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Austria, arrived at Sichuan province, after traveling through 12 countries along the ancient international trade route, the Southern Silk Road, in a 50-day journey.

Sichuan is home to more than 80 percent of wild pandas in the world, and Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, named by the World Tourism Organization as one of China's three best tourist cities, is the first stop for panda lovers.

During their stay in Chengdu, the panda lovers visited China's largest conservation and breeding center of pandas, where they acted as keepers by preparing food for the animals and cleaning their rooms. At the panda center, they also visited new-born twin cubs.

The team also visited panda centers at Dujiangyan and Bifeng Gorge, two local tourist attractions.

"I am so lucky to have a zero-distance contact with panda at the base. It's such an interesting and exciting experience for me," said Malanie, a German traveler.

Malaine had good reason to be excited: she spent her birthday in the Bifeng Gorge panda base together with Hua Hu, a panda which shares the same birthday with her.

The European panda lovers went on to Ya'an city, a two-hour drive southwest of Chengdu, and where the wild panda was first found – Armand David, a French missionary, encountered giant pandas in Ya'an in 1869 and made the bear known to the West.

At Ya'an, they visited the church where Father Armand David worked as a priest, learnt about the history of panda's discovery and released two pandas back into the wild. They also planted a bamboo grove.