Wow, 2 days and 2 new panda locations for me! Now it’s time to share about the giant pandas living in Zoo Negara Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur! Alike in Singapore, the pandas here are living in a purpose-built home, they are always kept indoors and there is temperature control, so it’s lovely and cool for the visitors too. For me, this was by far the best bit of the zoo, and while it was sometimes busy, it never felt too full and I was always able to get a spot to see the pandas – what helped here was that buggies/prams/pushchairs were not allowed in the building, and needed to be left outside, so this ensured the walkways inside were clear and having experience the opposite at many panda locations, this made for a better visit. There was always a staff member at the entrance, reminding about the rules for visiting the pandas, including that food and drink could not be brought in and that visitors needed to remain quiet. Inside there was also always either a staff member or a zoo volunteer also ensuring that the rules were abided to and making sure visitors quietened down if they were too loud. For me, it worked really well and I had a great visiting experience here!
It’s my first time visiting the giant pandas in Singapore! Giant pandas arrived in Singapore from the CCRCGPYa’an Bifengxia Base on the 6th of September 2012, and honestly I had no idea how long ago it was, that’s over 12 years they’ve been living in Singapore (I really had it in my head that it was more recent). They stay in the River Wonders park of the Mandai Wildlife Reserves area in a specialised climate-controlled home, the Pavilion Capital Giant Panda Forest. The River Wonders park (formerly River Safari) gradually opened across 2012-2014 (it looks like there were different phases, with the pandas being opening stars!), so it’s a pretty new zoological park in general – more on that in an upcoming post with what else you can see at River Wonders!
So finally in February 2025 I’ve made it to visit these pandas, my first pandas of this trip and of 2025 and the first pandas I’ve seen in almost 9 months, that’s the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing a panda (well, since before there were pandas living at Edinburgh Zoo)! I had such a great day visiting the pandas here, was a great viewing experience and environment for pandas, and I would highly recommend it if you’re ever in Singapore, or a nearby country. And had such a lovely experience meeting some of the Singaporean panda fans – I then went on to meet one of their friends when I was in Dujiangyan, and met one of them again in the Chengdu Panda Base, who it turned out had seen me and Jeroen (from Giant Panda Global) at the Dujiangyan Base last year when we were mobbed by school kids, what a small world!
I can finally tick off the list seeing all of the Panda bases in Sichuan Province, or more specifically in the Chengdu area! When I had the dream of seeing all the bases, I don’t think I intended to see them all on one trip, but that somehow managed to happen (although I’ve seen some on multiple previous trips too) – and I think it was completely worth it. When I was first looking up about seeing pandas in China, and even on more recent trips, I could never really find one resource that covered all of the bases – or even where they all were, especially somewhere that wasn’t a tour company. So hopefully this is something I can contribute to with this post summarising all 5 of the main giant panda bases in Sichuan Province that you can reach from Chengdu – covering the pros and cons of each, perhaps helping you figure out what might be the best option for what you want to see of pandas!
My first time to see the pandas at Ocean Park Hong Kong, and my first time in Hong Kong! I’m not sure why I didn’t really think about visiting before, but when I was booking this trip, getting back home directly from Chengdu was quite expensive with at least 2 stops, I looked at the different options to get home via Amsterdam/Paris, and Hong Kong came up – having never been, it was a no-brainer!
Ocean Park Hong Kong is a bit of a combination between a theme park and a zoo, they have both rides to go on, entertainment, and lots of animals to see. It’s split up into two different areas, the Waterfront and the Summit, and within each area there are different themed lands. I ended up staying at the Waterfront – to get to the Summit you can either take the cable car or the train as the two areas are separated by a mountain. I did try to go and take the train but it was closed when I wanted to go, and the queue for the cable car was over an hour, so I decided not to go. I was just particularly interested in seeing the pandas, so I didn’t go on any attractions, I stuck to seeing the pandas and most of the other animals living in the Waterfront area.
The pandas are located in the Waterfront, so easy to get to from the entrance of the park. This trip was in May 2024, at that time there were only 2 giant pandas at Ocean Park and they were staying in the Giant Panda Adventure building. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures building only had golden snub nosed monkeys in it when I visited, but now there are two brand new pandas also featuring there – the building has a lovely design with pandas all over the front, this did seem to confuse some visitors. Despite there being a staff member at the door saying ‘only monkeys, no pandas in here’, people were still leaving and asking her why they didn’t see any pandas in the building! And also on my visit, turns out Ying Ying was pregnant, so now there are two precious cubs to be seen as well – honestly what a few months Ocean Park had with their pandas^
There is of course also other panda themed things at Ocean Park – when you leave the Giant Panda Adventure area, you leave via a gift shop. They have many different panda souvenir options and I left with quite a few of them XD They had some deals on t-shirts, so I got a couple and am excited to wear them on future panda trips. I also picked up a magnet, my favourite holiday souvenir and there were plenty of soft-toys and kids games as well. I’ve seen now they have a huge range with the new pandas (both adults and cubs) so I’m excited to check these out next time. And there is of course the Club Panda Cafe, I didn’t eat here on my trip because I think at that time there didn’t look to be too many foods that looked like pandas, but now I think that’s changed with the new arrivals. Next time I’m having lunch there! And that will be soon – because I’m back in Hong Kong as this post goes live and I’ll be in Ocean Park seeing all 6 pandas tomorrow^
