Spending my last 2 days in Chengdu at the Chengdu Panda Base! I am very much at the point where 2 days is a bit short for getting everything in, so I think this will be the last time that I can only do 2 days, I need to try out 3 or possibly even 4 next time – and that’s with some areas not open as well! I’ve written a lot about the base before, there are plenty of other posts to check out for introductions and more general photos, but here just some quick updates and of course the best first pandas to see on a trip: Hua Hua and He Ye =D
I visited on the 16th and 17th of February, a Sunday and a Monday. The Sunday was a little bit busier, but I would say I didn’t find it super crowded overall – I think just after the Chinese New Year holidays was perhaps a good move for the crowd levels. The decorations for the holiday were still up too, I love the front entrance all decked out in red designs and the banners all up the entrance path were fun as well.
There was some construction ongoing on my visit, the Sunshine Nursery area was closed (and still looks like it is now in the Summer) and there was some construction for a new rest area as well – now that the new expansion has been open a couple of years, I think there is more work ongoing in the original part of the base to improve the experience for both the visitors and the pandas. In the expansion, in the Panda Forest area, there are still 3 panda houses and the golden monkey house not yet open to the public (although all look complete in terms of construction). New in the original part of the park on my visit was a large tent housing ‘Panda Planet’ which looked to be an interactive experience about pandas – this cost an additional entrance fee so I didn’t go in to experience this, however you could still visit the gift shop at the end of the experience. Speaking of gift shops, the panda merch on offer has definitely expanded, so many different items on offer now, it’s quite hard to choose – and some stores sell slightly different items to others, so you might only see a certain thing in one store. I think I am having some regrets about not getting this fluffy panda-ears cap from the Moonlight Nursery store XD What was also new was the new map advertising the panda ice cream locations, I think that’s a fab idea – even though it was chilly in February, I still managed to have a panda ice cream, this time trying the chocolate one. This was one of the first which has actually tasted like the advertised flavour – and the benefit of cooler weather meant that it wasn’t melting immediately! And a final new thing to highlight was new signage around highlighting not to use flash photography, be quiet and don’t feed the pandas when visiting. These were really nice touches and will hopefully be an eye-catching reminder to visitors.
I had planned to see absolutely everything, that ended up being a bit too ambitious. So I didn’t see any of Panda Creek Valley this time – with another day I would have been able to make it work. However as it was outdoor viewing only in the most of the expansion, I had a few people tell me that it was quite difficult to see the pandas in their outdoor yards here, so perhaps I didn’t really miss all that much.
Hua Hua 花花 and He Ye 和叶
First pandas of the base, it had to be Hua Hua 花花 (officially He Hua 和花) and twin sister He Ye 和叶! Now by the time I got around to the Chengdu Panda Base days of my trip, I was quite tired – I’d had 3 6AM out the door times the previous 3 mornings, so I was seriously flagging! This meant that I didn’t really plan my days to the Chengdu Panda Base, beyond buying my ticket online in advance. So I didn’t check the opening times, and by happy accident perhaps, I arrived thinking the base opened at 7:30AM, but it was Winter hours, so it was actually 8AM opening. This meant I was amongst the first few hundred visitors to start queueing working out perfectly for an opportunity to get in the line quickly to see Hua Hua and He Ye. I joined the line to get in around 7:35AM (using my mistake to get some photos!), I reckon it took maybe 2-3 minutes after opening to get my ticket checked via my passport number, and by 8:06AM I was at the line-up area to see Hua Hua – I didn’t run, but I do walk very quickly, and can do so uphill – my running and hockey training pays off for something! Last year when I visited, I waited in the queue for an hour before getting to the front, this time it wasn’t even 10 minutes. At 8:18AM my group was being moved along by the security guards after our few minute viewing window was up. Honestly best 3 minutes of panda viewing =)
I only had to wait at one line section before getting to the front viewing, but even from this area I could see both Hua Hua and He Ye through the bushes. That alone was already a better view than I got last year and I was thinking ‘if this is all I see, then it’s already better and I’m happy with it’. Then after a few minutes it was our turn – people do push and run for the front spot and I was already at the back of the group, so I didn’t have prime viewing. Being a bit taller with long arms certainly helped and I was able to hold my camera quite high to get photos – don’t think I’ve ever taken so many in a 3 minute window haha!
Initially the two were sitting back to back chowing down on their bamboo – super sweet^ Then Hua Hua decided to get up and she came closer to where I was standing, had a look around at the bamboo there but decided against it before heading back around to sit in a position more behind the bamboo. Then luck struck, and she shuffled along to just beside the bamboo and we could all see her peaking out from the side. It was so so SO adorable and I love her so much! And then the guards were moving us on. I could have quickly sped around to join the queue again, the line would have definitely built up, but I still think it would have been less than an hour or so. I decided I’d had a really good experience already and that I was happy to move on to other areas. Had a lil’ teary moment to myself walking up the hill afterwards because I honestly never thought having a great Hua Hua viewing would ever happen and I really just ticked off another panda-viewing-bucket-list item.
What was interesting is that there were a number of tour groups in the entrance line in front of me, but actually none of them headed for Hua Hua and He Ye – I’m not sure where they all disappeared to, but there were no tour groups in the line or viewing with me. I think this kept it a bit quieter.
It’s important to also note that when I visited and still now (as is advertised on the WeChat mini-programme for the base), Hua Hua and He Ye are not on show on Mondays, with the exception of some public holidays. So if you are wanting to see them, definitely consider this and check out the current information when you are visiting. When I was lining up at the entrance on Monday I heard some people excitedly talking about seeing Hua Hua and I’m sure they were disappointed to find the yard off limits.
