"We almost always have to turn people away," says Frank Dunne, whose Earthquake Resource Center in Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, organizes paying volunteers into weekend reconstruction teams.

Chinese television reported on Saturday that staff at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center were trying to find fresh supplies of bamboo.

The character of baby Po, the panda who grows up to be the film's hero, was drawn after studying the movements of a baby panda at a Chengdu panda breeding facility.