A baby panda at a sanctuary in China was heard squealing with delight when its friend decided to give it an impromptu back massage.

One-year-old panda Qing Xiao put its paws to good use and rubbed the back of his pal Meng Lan on a relaxing afternoon at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan province, south west China.

The touching moment was captured in a video clip shared by People's Daily Online, and Meng Lan was seen smacking his lips and rolling over in delight as his friend did it a favour.

Kind: Young cub Meng Lan relaxed as his friend Qing Xiao went to work in Chengdu, China

Chilled out: The cute bear was overheard squeaking and sighing in delight at the treat

The tiny bears, which were born last year as part of the centre's revolutionary breeding programme, appeared to have a lot of fun as they lounged around in the sun in their enclosure.

Meanwhile Qing Xiao is known to have a twin brother, although it is not known whether the creature's sibling was afforded the same luxury as his friend.

The video was posted to YouTube by the panda news site PandaPia and quickly had users cooing over the cuteness of the bears.

Despite its tender age, Qing Xiao is already becoming something of a celebrity in the panda appreciation world - in June, the small fluffy cub was filmed playing around with his friends at the sanctuary and the clip was posted online.

Cute: The pair were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan

Friends: The popular centre welcomes thousands of tourists every year to watch the pandas

The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan Province was founded in 1987, and started with only six sick and starving pandas.

Since then, 214 cubs have been bred there with 143 births. The base now holds the world's largest artificially bred population of giant pandas, which currently stands at 152.

In June this year, a pair of female twins were born from the breeding programme, which the centre claimed were the first twins born in 2016 anywhere in the world.

The popular centre welcomes thousands of tourists every year to watch, appreciate and in some cases even stroke the baby pandas.