Moving onto the second upper area of pandas at Chongqing Zoo – here there are 5 yards and while I was there there were 7 pandas living in these yards. Here 4 of the pandas were living individually and 3 were living together. Generally it was a bit quieter up here across the whole day, I do think the viewing options were a bit smaller than the lower area, but with fewer people it wasn’t too bad to get a spot. There was a lot of tree coverage over the pathway up here so I found it quite dark. The yards all backed onto a rock face, which I don’t think helped with the light either. While I tried to split my time equally between the two areas, I did spend most time at the lower area just because of the younger cubs there and also the lighter more green conditions in the yards. First up, looking at 3 of the solo-living pandas in this area.
Liang Yue 良月
Liang Yue 良月 is a female panda who was born in 2016, making her 8.5 years old on my visit. She was born here at Chongqing Zoo and has always lived here, her parents are Ling Ling and Ya Ya, making her siblings with a number of the other pandas here, including Mang Zai and Hao Qi. There’s not a lot of information online about her, but I found some adorable pictures and videos of her playing on a swinging ladder from last year which was super cute. She was mostly active in the morning when I saw her. She had a mix of bamboo shoots, bamboo and some fruit/vegetables and was enjoying eating most of the time. Her yard is nice with a mix of climbing options, I really like the wooden bridge, it would have been cool to see her scaling that!
Yu Bao 渝宝
Next is Yu Bao 渝宝, he is a male and was also born in 2016 making him 8.5 years old on my visit. I saw very little of him sadly, in the morning it looked like he had just finished his bamboo feast when I arrived and had promptly collapsed for a nap right next to the bamboo remnants! There are a lot of very adorable pictures of him as a youngster online that are definitely worth checking out. I couldn’t see him in the afternoon so I think he was hanging out inside. Shortly after my visit he moved with Jia Yue Yue to Wuxi Zoo and I’m kinda feeling like it might be worth adding that to my visit list to see the pair again.
Lan Xiang 兰香
The third panda is Lan Xiang 兰香, she is an older lady, being 22.5 years old now. She is one of the few pandas who was not born here – she was born in Wolong and moved to Chongqing Zoo shortly after her 1st birthday. Her mother is Ying Ying, a wild-born panda who was very successful in breeding thus Lan Xiang has a number of siblings – I felt like she looked quite familiar, so it’s likely I’m just seeing the family traits^ She has had breeding success herself, and was living next door to son Yu Bao when I visited. Yu Bao and twin Yu Bei were her first pregnancy, she was older at 14 when she had them, however her success continued with 2019-born cubs too – who are still living in the same area and will be shared in the next post. I think she’s a very pretty panda and is most certainly not looking her age amongst her younger peers living her in Chongqing Zoo. She was only on show in the morning, so it was lucky I got there while she was enjoying her bamboo – in the afternoon she was kept inside while some work was being done in her yard.
