So excited to share a brand new pair of pandas living at Ocean Park! On the 1st of July 2024 it was announced that a new pair of pandas was being gifted to Hong Kong – super exciting as this made me want to go back and visit again after having just been in May 2024. The pandas chosen were male An An 安安 (who I saw in Ya’an Bifengxia Base in May 2024) and female Ke Ke 可可, who were both 5 years old on their arrival in Hong Kong. They arrived on the 26th of September 2024 and went on show to the public from the 8th of December 2024. The pair are living in the Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures section of the park, which I quite like as it means you have two very different areas to see pandas in – this was the original home of the first pandas living at Ocean Park, An An and Jia Jia who lived amazing lives into their 30’s and were much loved there. The viewing area for seeing the pandas in this building is smaller than the other area, however there are two levels to the pathway which I like and the front windows are quite long, a surprisingly large number of people can fit along and get a view at once and there were always staff members there to keep people moving (and also keep the noise down). All viewing here is through glass, but because it’s inside there isn’t the stress of the reflection of the sun and overall it’s quite a dark environment which works quite well for viewing through the window, which was also very clean – I had no issues getting photos at all! I visited the building several times across the day and never needed to queue up or wait to get a spot to see either panda, I think with the twins having just gone on show, that there were maybe fewer visitors heading this way so that worked in my favour to give these guys some attention too^
An An 安安
The first panda to see is An An 安安! Now I didn’t see much of him when I saw him in China, so I was glad to see more of him on this trip. On my first visit to them he was sleeping up on a platform, legs splayed XD Luckily he was awake and up and about on my next visits so I could see his super cute handsome face – such a beautiful panda^ He really reminds me of Bao Li and Bao Yuan and the ’round fluffy face’ pandas that I have seen this year. On the second, third and fourth times I went around he was awake on each visit. It was great to see him climbing and making use of all of the space, he really did explore a lot of the yard and I saw him having a good sniff around many of the plants around the front half of the yard – he spent more time at the front than Ke Ke, so he seemed just a bit more confident. I saw him get some carrots which was cute, but later he did also settle down with some bamboo. The sloped nature of the yard is pretty good for panda viewing, pandas generally lean back against something when eating and because the yard slopes down to the front, the panda will typically then sit eating towards the front – I got some super cute shots of him because of this! Even though his door was open and he had the option to go into the back off show, he was always out in the yard when I saw him.
Ke Ke 可可
And then we have Ke Ke 可可! She seems to be a bit of a quieter panda, mostly choosing to stay closer to the back of the yard or in the back den, or sleeping! The first time I went round she was sleeping like An An, then on my next visit I got lucky and she was awake and eating, luckily she had turned around the face the front. She was quite near the back, but that’s what a long lens is for! She had some fruit and bamboo shoots and she was looking very happy with her little selection of treats^ She was sleeping on the platform on my next visit, and on my penultimate visit I caught a glimpse of her bum just heading inside up the back – they do however have screens so you can watch the back den, but she just settled down to sleep and was still there on my last visit at the end of the day (it was after 5PM though, so who can blame her?!?!). There is very little information about her online from her life before travelling to Hong Kong .
