Here is the final of the 4 pavilions in the Panda Reception Hall, the Rising Sun Pavilion. Same setup as the others, and here I saw the same three pandas on both days of my visit – one solo and one pair. The app lists 7 pandas as living here, so there were 4 that I didn’t see (Er Qiao 儿巧, 13 years old; You You 友友, 3 years old; Jiu Jiu 久久, 3 years old; Cheng Jiu 成就, 10 years old) – now if the app current info is as it was on my visit (potential for change, but the 3 I did see are listed in this pavilion), that means I missed on seeing the You You and Jiu Jiu who were the twins born at Zoo Madrid in 2021. It’s quite likely they weren’t on show during my visit as they had only relatively recently returned from Spain so were maybe still adjusting to the different environment, but I’m so hoping I can see them next time because they have been a highlight of my European zoo visits, you can see photos *here*.

Now is the third of the 4 pavilions in the Panda Reception Hall, the Cloud Sun Pavilion. Same setup as the other, and here I saw only two pandas and saw both on both days of my visit. The app lists 5 pandas as living here, so there were 3 that I didn’t see (Bao Ge 宝哥, 5 years old; Ke Dou 科豆, 6 years old; Yun Wen 韵文, 6 years old). This pavilion is at quite a central point so I passed by it several times on both days and the pandas were always out when I went past.

Next up in the Panda Reception Hall area is the second of 4 pavilions, the Reflecting Sun Pavilion, which has the same set up as the Spring Sun Pavilion with two indoor viewing spaces and then outdoor yards. Here I also didn’t see every panda that was living in this pavilion, but I did see 5 different ones – currently there are 6 listed as living here on the app. On the first day I saw 3 pandas, one solo and one female pair although I didn’t get any good photos of the pair (Run Yue 润玥 and Ai Jiu 艾玖, born in 2020). On the second day I saw two different solo pandas, again one I didn’t get very good pictures from (Cheng Shi 成实, born in 2016 and actually was one of the first cubs I ever saw!). So I saw almost everyone here!

When walking from the original section of the base to the new section, the Panda Reception Hall area is the first you will come to, and within that the Spring Sun Pavilion is the first panda house you will see of the 4 houses in this section. All 4 of the pavilions have inside and outside viewing for the pandas, but on my visit all the pandas were kept inside due to the high temperatures. Us humans are all outside for all the viewing and because it’s all glass on the pandas inside homes, there were sometimes difficulties in seeing with reflections. This also meant that I didn’t see all the pandas living in each pavilion – they rotate the use of the inside areas, so some pandas were in off-show areas due to the outside yards not being in use. So in some areas I saw different pandas on both days, and some I saw the same pandas. In the Spring Sun Pavilion I happened to see a trio of young ones on both days, and then the same sub-adult male on both days – currently on the app there are 6 pandas listed for this pavilion, so I potentially didn’t see 2 of them (perhaps they weren’t living in this pavilion on my trip however).