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ON THE GENTLE slopes of Futou Mountain, about 35 miles from the Chinese city of Chengdu, a small posse of giant pandas is sleeping in the shade, oblivious to the hundreds of tourists calling out to them, hoping they’ll wake up and move around a little so the interlopers can get a good photo. I was one of those impatient tourists a few years ago, when I first traveled to the city. Most Westerners who go to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, come to visit its panda research and breeding center, after they’ve seen the Great Wall in Beijing and the terra cotta warriors in Xi’an. Now that airlines like United…