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Kirsten

P A N D A S @ S H A N G H A I W I L D A N I M A L P A R K CHINA, December 2025

The final pandas of 2025 – to end the year I was back in China for a week in Shanghai and so I spent the 30th of December squeezing in one last panda visit. My first time to the Shanghai Wild Animal Park! And for sure it won’t be the last visit, I had such a great day overall, including a fantastic time visiting the pandas. I had hoped the 2025-born twins might perhaps be on show with their mum, but I was out of luck on that front. I did however see the other 4 pandas and honestly had a fabulous end to panda viewing of 2025 … tempted to do the same for 2026!

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Kirsten

Third round of PANDAS @ HONG KONG OCEAN PARK December 2025

Now for sure I didn’t think I’d be back at Hong Kong Ocean Park for a third visit to the pandas and a second visit in the same year! But here we are XD When planning my trip to Japan, and once it became Japan and South Korea, it felt like I needed a third location to round up a nice 2-week trip, and the lure of twin panda cubs brought me again to Hong Kong!

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Kirsten

Snapshots of a HONG KONG afternoon

Despite having been to Hong Kong twice before, I’ve very much been a strictly panda and Disney visitor, I’ve yet to see any of the main tourist spots of the city – but this time I had an afternoon to start seeing the city. I did a little shopping, finding the fantastic Uniqlo x Ocean Park panda collection, picked up some fun themed magnets, and headed for my first experience on The Peak Tram – what a great afternoon! Then I headed to my hotel, the Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel to be in perfect position for starting off a strong following day at Ocean Park^ Didn’t choose a panda room this time but had an amazing view of the front entrance of Ocean Park and of course a super comfy room, had a great nights sleep there.

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Kirsten

P A N D A S @ E V E R L A N D SOUTH KOREA, December 2025

I made it to South Korea! This is my first time time in South Korea seeing the panda family that live there in the Everland Resort – the Bao family^ On my visit to Shenshuping Base a few years ago I just missed seeing oldest daughter of the family Fu Bao, she had recently moved to China but wasn’t on show yet to the public, so she’s still to be seen, but now I have seen the parents, Ai Bao and Le Bao (who have been living in South Korea since March 2016!), and younger sisters, twins Rui Bao and Hui Bao =D

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Kirsten

First-timer TOKYO snapshots, November 2025

Only planned myself 48 hours in Tokyo for this first trip alongside Disney time – just enough to give me a little taster and tick off a few of the sites! Now when this 48 hours includes seeing pandas and sleeping, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for much else – Tokyo is huge and I definitely underestimated a little on how long it would take me to get to and from places. I already have a list for my next visit, and without there being pandas there now, perhaps that will be my furthest travel destination that doesn’t have pandas to see! Anyway, what I did squeeze in: Tokyo Skytree and top tourist spots in Ginza, Shibuya and Harajuku as well as strolling the streets of Ueno. What impressed me the most though were the beautiful Autumn colours, I really loved them in Toyko^

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