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!
While I was there there were some renovation works being done on An An and Ke Ke’s yards, so they were off show, so on this trip I could only see Ying Ying and Le Le’s family – no problem for me, and I filled the whole day at the Giant Panda Adventure house! A few changes this time compared to my last visit: there is no longer a time limit for viewing, so you can stay as long as you like, so perfect! While it was a bit busy, it didn’t really feel too crowded and I was always able to see. It did only get very busy at the end of the day, and I was pretty stuck where I was standing to view, which was fine because I had a great spot, but there was no room to move or get out so tricky if I had wanted to leave.
Overall, I had a great day visiting the pandas! In addition, of course I had to enjoy some panda-themed snacks, with plenty of choice in several locations across the park, and see what new merch I could get – I love the cartoon design of the 6 pandas and it was on plenty of new items to choose from. I especially liked the panda umbrella and also the scarf, being from a cold rainy country, these are perfect souvenirs that I will get plenty of use from.
You can check out all my Ocean Park content, including previous panda trips, *here*!
Le Le 乐乐
Gotta start with dad Le Le 乐乐 – who always looks chilled and super cute when I see him. He’s still living in the third yard in the Giant Panda Adventure house and when I saw him he split his time between wandering around and enjoying some bamboo. I’ll admit, I didn’t see as much of him as I would have liked because now there’s no time limit on watching the twins so I didn’t get dedicated time just for him. But hopefully next time I go, he can get some extra attention^
Ying Ying 盈盈
Ying Ying 盈盈 enjoyed most of the day solo when I was there – she was in the first yard of the Giant Panda Adventure house and she seemed super chilled and enjoying it. Most of the day was eating and sleeping, along with a little climbing on one of the climbing frames and in one of the trees. So happy to see her again, and happy to see lots of her – on my last visit I didn’t see so much of her. As the twins were on show for most of the day, the majority of visitors were heading straight for them, but this meant viewing was typically a little quieter at Ying Ying, so I really enjoyed that and could get a good spot most of the time.
Jia Jia 加加 & De De 得得
Of course, the main duo, twins Jia Jia 加加 (elder sister) and De De 得得 (younger brother)! What a pair these two are, so playful and full of energy, honestly they seemed to spend hardly any time resting, it was go go go! The twins were almost 1.5 years old on my visit, and De De still wears his purple mark on his back so you can easily distinguish between the two (it’s great, I love that!). These two were in the ‘middle’ yard of the panda house when I was there, this is all viewed through glass, so sometimes a reflection is caught in the photos or the divide between the panes of glass is in the way, but overall I think I got a lot of good photos with these two. They both seemed to enjoy both time together and time separately, with Jia Jia seeming to be the more independent of the two – when the keeper wanted them to come into the back den, Jia Jia was resting in the tree and very much refused to go with the keeper, whereas De De was very obedient and went inside immediately!
Ying Ying with Jia Jia & De De
This moment was so special but also about an hour of chaos – Ying Ying was being pulled at and crawled over the whole time and she just looked out to the crowd as if to say ‘see what I have to put up with?!’ She definitely appreciated her alone time for the earlier part of the day! Around an hour out from the close of the panda viewing for the day, Ying Ying was let into the middle yard and a few moments later the doors were opened and the twins slowly came out to join her. I got so lucky with this because I was already standing in front of the window maybe one or two rows of people back from the front, so I had prime position – if I hadn’t been there I would have seen almost nothing, and honestly I was stuck there for the whole time because it was so packed with people behind me that I couldn’t have gotten out if I had wanted to (which was fine, I didn’t want to leave XD). So I got an hours worth of photos of the trio. I’m so pleased that it worked out this way because it’s very possible that the next time I make it back to Hong Kong that the twins may be completely separated from Ying Ying, so very special to experience this.
