I made my fourth visit to Chengdu in November last year – and managed to squeeze in 3 trips to see the pandas at Chengdu Panda Base! They were all a little short for my liking, but still there was plenty of time to see all of the pandas. I stayed in the nearby Crowne Plaza Chengdu Panda Garden which made multiple visits very easy as it’s barely 5 minutes drive down the road. Compared with my visit in November 2018, there were quite a few changes – mostly outside of the base. The main road along the front is now closed off to traffic, and across the road is now a huge pedestrianised plaza with offices, shops, restaurants and convenience stores, and it’s all decorated with pandas in mind, there are pictures everywhere, there were some paw prints all over and on the ground, even the rubbish bins had pandas all over them! Here there were machines where I *think* you could buy tickets to go into the base, there were no instructions or signs in English at them, so I bought my ticket at the main desk by the entrance, which was no problem. Inside the base there were also a few changes, with ‘Panda House 1’, the oldest house built, being renovated – I’ve since seen online the large renovation and expansion plans that the base has for the coming years, it really looks like it will be amazing.
*My trip to Chengdu was part of travel for a work conference, my employer paid for my flight to China and my hotel in Chengdu, where the conference took place. On two visits to the Chengdu Panda Base, I paid for entry myself, on the third the visit to the base was included in the conference schedule.
Two of my visits this time were in the afternoon, from approximately 3PM, and the third was at around 9AM – it was definitely more busy in the morning, however there were still a lot of people around in the afternoon. All of my visits this time were on weekdays, it does get pretty crazy on the weekends. My first stop (along with a significant number of other visitors, as you can see) is to head to the nurseries to see the young pandas. At the moonlight nursery I go around the outside enclosures first – there’s generally a circular route around the circular building, so you could just go around and around a few times. If there’s pandas out doing something, no matter if they’re small or big cubs, the crowds will gather like in this picture below. The pathway is maybe big enough for a 5-deep crowd, and then there is a ledge at the back where more people always stand – I’m not sure if this is allowed, but there are some ‘guards’ around who try and keep people moving when it’s busy, and they’re never asked people to get off the ledge. I’m pretty tall, but I still struggle to see over a deep crowd, the ledge gives me the perfect vantage point^
The cubs which are able to move around independently are second up around the moonlight nursery after these larger cubs – and they’re definitely even more popular. There’s a lot of ‘holding your ground’ to keep a front row spot, so some jostling going on, and parents pushing their kids to get in closer. I’ve definitely mastered the art of getting a spot and keeping it, and not letting people push you around! The first time I was here I was too nervous (or maybe being too polite) and didn’t try to hard to get to the front, and a little older lady grabbed my elbow and pulled me in beside her. I’m kind of grateful for that! I’d say this is the area where people will spend most time, every time I’ve been watching here (I’d say I wait here for at least 30 minutes) the panda nannies have come out, and either brought new cubs out or moved some to different areas of the enclosure. So they do keep it pretty active.
Tiny cubs in the incubators can be viewed inside the nurseries – for this there is a queue system, which is perhaps the most orderly queue I’ve ever seen in China. It’s also manned by security staff, who keep people moving and keep the noise down, and people obey these rules very well here. I’ve never waited for more than 5 minutes, so even if the queue looks to be 30 or 40 people long, it moves quickly. In November there was one window open for viewing on one afternoon, and then in the morning there were two windows open – the youngest cubs from the 2019 births were born in October, so these two cubs I saw were only a month old, just so adorable^ You can also see the ‘no flash’ signs in my picture, and everyone adhered to this.
In my opinion, the outdoor cub viewing area in the sunshine nursery is the best area to see the cubs – I always see cute activities happening here, whether is cubs playing together or on their own or climbing all over a selection of toys and enrichment items. On this visit it was particularly busy, there were a few tour groups there at the same time, so I just hung back a little as they tend to move pretty quickly and I am in no rush. Of the two who were out this time one of them was Cheng Lang – I heard a lady ask the keeper and he confirmed that she was out, but I don’t remember if it was this cub below or the other one who was hiding up the climbing frame! Cheng Lang is a little famous in the panda cub world, she was born on 11th June 2019 and weighed only 42.8g (her twin sister Cheng Feng was a regular birth weight of 171g), she is the lightest panda cub to survive, and it looked like she was thriving! She was very adorable, and really knew how to be cute in front of the crowd – climbing into the panda-shaped basket and onto the wooden rocker, I have some adorable video footage of it that just makes me smile when I watch it!
The panda kindergarten is my next stop, it’s fairly close to the sunshine nursery. After the tiny cubs, this is the next most popular spot to see the pandas, however it’s a big enclosure, so there are a lot of view points to stand at. Over the years this enclosure has seen the most change – in 2016 there was a big climbing structure with large platforms for the pandas to sit on, which was a prime area to view. That’s now gone, with a wooden base just on the ground now and some new structures further back from the front of viewing. And I also noticed some additional hanging enrichment items.
Pandas up trees seemed to be a common theme this year, and I saw many pandas having a bit of tiff over who gets the best spot! There are always plenty of trees in every enclosure, so every panda could have their own, but there’s obviously a favourite one^ On my morning visit I got there a little later, so there was a bit less activity, but the nearby adult pandas were also cute to see to. I find all pandas cute, I’m someone who could watch them sleep for hours and I’d be ok with that!
The last thing I did before leaving the base was head back to the two nurseries for a last look at cubs. There are some great ‘different’ views at the moonlight enclosure. One the outdoor walkway around the one-way route, you can look over a wall opposite viewing the last panda enclosure and see one of the spaces where they were bringing in the fresh bamboo, beyond this area there are also some great views beyond the base. There is also a bridge to access the moonlight nursery, it’s definitely a popular route to get into the nursery, and also gives great views being based at the top of the hill at the base. This was the first year I saw this indoor area for the cubs (below) open for viewing, normally it’s behind curtains. There is one large room with a fence down the middle – however it was no obstacle for the cubs, as at this size (approximately 5 months old) they had no problem squeezing through to the other side. There was a climbing structure which one cub was eager to climb up, and even made it’s way into the hanging basket. After sitting there for a few minutes it went through the fence into the blue crate on the other side! This window was very congested, I had my elbows out to keep my spot, and it was a real advantage being tall in this case.
Overall I had 3 really great visits to the Chengdu Panda Base in 2019 – no matter how short the visit was, there were always many cute pandas to see of all sizes. I couldn’t recommend it more if you are a panda fan or are in the Chengdu area!