Next up, living in the No2 House is Yuan Run 园润 and her 2023-born twins, who at the time of my visit weren’t yet named but have now been announced as male Run Ze 润泽 and female Run Yang 润洋. The twins were born on the 25th of August 2023 and are her 3rd and 4th cubs. I don’t think I’ve seen Yuan Run previously, last year she was likely living in on of the nursery houses with the cubs nearby, but it was very hot when I visited so many of the pandas were inside.

Yuan Run was born in 2012, making her 12.5 years old on my visit. Through her dad she has several half-siblings, including famous Ao Li Ao/Oreo who I saw last year at Panda Valley, and Miao Miao, who I saw on this visit with her 2024-born cub. Yuan Run also spent some time living at Panda Valley, before moving back to the Chengdu Panda Base and joining the breeding programme. She had cubs in both 2018 and 2020 before these twins in 2023. In 2020/2021 she even helped take part in the raising of Hua Hua, so there are some very cute pictures online of the pair. Yuan Run is particularly recognisable with a very round and extra fluffy face, and very round puffy ears. There are lots of pictures of her younger days online when she was living in the kindergarten in a group of 7 youngsters – that would have been amazing to see! And one of these twins I think looks particularly like a young Yuan Run, super cute cheeks and ears^

I saw all 3 of them on both days of my visit – I went around lunchtime on the first day and one of the cubs was sitting eating, but the other and mum were both asleep. Then I happened to stop by on my way out in the evening and that was the best decision, because these 3 were still up and about at that time (unlike most of the other pandas in the base) and had quite a crowd of photographers at them. And these weren’t the livestreamers, they were the real photographers who had all the kit and lenses to make my 300mm one seem incredibly tiny! I felt like I was in the right place to have a great panda viewing experience. On the second day I knew I wanted this to be my last stop of the day too, and again was rewarded with active pandas – all 3 were up moving around, with Yuan Run eating right at the front of the yard and looking incredibly adorable. I really like the yard they live in, it’s very large with lots of different climbing frames and trees to climb/sit it, including a slide. On the second day of my visit I just had a gut feeling that I needed to stand close to the slide, and only 5 mins later, one of the cubs went down the slide! It was such an amazing moment and I was right there at the perfect spot to capture it on video. Honestly felt so complete and full of warm fuzzies after seeing that, such a highlight of my 2 days at the base.