China currently has 217 pandas that have been bred in captivity, said the State Forestry Administration Wednesday.

Thirty-four panda cubs were born by artificial insemination in 2006 and 30 of them have survived, said spokesperson Cao Qingyao, adding that both figures hit records.

Twenty-nine of the surviving panda cubs were bred by zoologists in Southwest China's Sichuan Province: 17 were born at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center and 12 at the Chengdu Research Base. The other panda was bred at Chongqing Zoo.

Sources with the forestry administration said earlier that more than 30 female pandas nationwide were inseminated in spring, including one at Beijing Zoo and one in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

A panda cub was born at Beijing Zoo but it died prematurely and the attempt in Shaanxi was not successful, according to the sources.

China has been raising pandas through artificial insemination and breeding for nearly 50 years.

Meanwhile, experts estimate that there are about 1,600 pandas living in the wild in China. The vast majority of them -- about 1,100 -- live in one of the 59 natural reserves that China had set up for pandas by the end of 2006.

Source: Xinhua