CHENGDU, May 28 (Xinhua) -- "She's so plumpy. Does she bite?" 16-year-old Irena asks as she carefully cuddles Jingjing, an eight-month-old giant panda.

    "It's wonderful to hold a panda bear in your arms," she says with hearty smiles on her face as she posed for a photo.

    Irena is one of the 10 children to have survived a school hostage holdup in Russia's southern city of Beslan two years ago. They are in China on a one-month therapeutic trip and a much-expected meeting with the cuddly bear is believed to be an important part of the therapy.

    Irena seemed a bit nervous at first and her legs shook a little as she sat with her peers on a bench at the giant pandas' "nursery" in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, awaiting the zookeeper to bring the bear. She hummed a Russian song to boost her courage.

    Her eyes opened wide when Jingjing was sat on her laps. She looked startled and hesitated for a moment before she touched the bear on the head and legs tenderly, relieved to find the animal was so gentle and soft. "Is she always like that? How much bamboo does she eat a day?" she asks the zookeeper.

    "Panda bear is so different from Russia's brown bear," said Taimuraz, 16. "She's very cute."

    "I have affection for pandas," 14-year-old Zarina pitched in. "I used to see them only on pictures. It's the first time for me to touch and feel a lovely panda."

    As the girls cuddled the panda, Jingjing eased their timidity by rubbing the back of her head against their arms and waving her legs, triggering laughers from the blonds.

    Irena had to let go of the panda when the zookeeper took Jingjing back at the end of the 10-minute contact. "It's ended so fast," she said with a pity. "In fact I worried all the while she might bite me. Fortunately she's got tender, sweet bamboo in her 'hands' and I think that should taste better than my arm."

    Taimuraz bought a toy panda at the souvenir shop upon her leaving of the giant pandas breeding and research base in Chengdu. "I'll take the 'panda' home," she said with a sense of satisfaction.

    They are scheduled to leave for home on May 30.

    On Sept. 1, 2004, a group of armed militants took more than 1,000 hostages in a school in Beslan in the Russian Republic of North Ossetia. The crisis ended on the third day after a gunfire exchange, in which 331 innocent people were killed, over half of whom were kids.

    Many countries around the globe, including China, have offered medical assistance to Russia after the hostage holdup. More than 30 children have recovered after treatment by Chinese doctors, said Tsogoev Alan, a Russian doctor accompanying the children to China.

    The group arrived in the city of Sanya on China's southernmost Hainan island Province on May 2 for traditional Chinese treatment. They subsequently spent the past week in Sichuan Province and were invited to local children's homes.

    Psychologists say pets have a role to play in healing traumas. Dolphins, for example, have been used worldwide to lead children out of autism.

    Giant pandas, one of the world's most endangered species, now number around 1,590 living in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, according to studies carried out by State Forestry Administration.

    China sent a giant panda to the Soviet Union in 1955 and a second one in 1957. The pair were the most petted animals in Moscow for many years to come.

    The Chinese government stopped giving away giant pandas abroad as gifts in 1985, and pandas have since begun to be sent overseas only through a lease contract or a joint study. Enditem