Next up in the Panda Creek Valley is the Full Moon Pavilion – you can see in the pictures that this and the next pavilions have a different design than the first pavilions in this area. These are round buildings, where you can view indoor on one side, and outdoor on the opposite side (but all indoors on my visit) – in the Full Moon Pavilion there are 4 outdoor and 2 indoor enclosures, and currently there are 4 pandas listed as living here, I saw the same two pandas on both days of my visit. I was always here a bit later in the afternoon, so it was generally very quiet with not many other visitors watching the pandas at the same time as I was.
He Qi 和琪
The first panda I saw here was He Qi 和琪 – on the first day she was sleeping but luckily on the second visit she was up and eating. He Qi is an almost 13 year old female, and she has a twin sister, He Mei, who I already saw in the Embracing Moon Pavilion – these two were loaned to Guizhou Forest Wild Animal Park from 2015 to 2022, so she is relatively recently back here at the Chengdu Base. Living here, and not in one of the nursery buildings, would suggest she hasn’t entered the breeding programme yet, but perhaps that will be on the cards for her next season.
Yuan Yue
The other panda I saw on both days here is Yuan Yue 园月, a female born in 2016 (yes, another panda I maybe saw as a cub^), and actually I can’t find any information about her online. There is pretty much nothing, which is a bit of a shame, but honestly I thought she was one of the best adult pandas I saw at the base, and one of the pandas I had the best viewing experience with. When I was there there was one other family of 4 people, plus the security guard, so it was very quiet and we could easily all move around and get the best views of her. The keeper was putting out fresh bamboo and shoots when I got there, so I waited right in front of the pile of shoots for her to come over, and she did exactly that! I thought she looked so happy sitting there enjoying her bamboo. And she looks particularly round and fluffy while sitting leaning against the rock, and then getting bamboo debris all over her tummy and paws?! Just too cute^ Yuan Yue is still listed as living in this pavilion, so hopefully I will see her next time.
