I can’t believe I finally made it to the Wolong Shenshuping Giant Panda Base! Honestly, this felt like somewhere unachievable to get to, I never thought it would happen. I don’t love a long car ride, so I had been apprehensive about going here as it was made out to be a really long drive out, but actually it was only just over an hour from Dujiangyan city centre and the time passed pretty quickly (for me, an hour is my typical bus journey to work so that length is pretty normal) with pretty mountain views and chatting with my friend. Definitely start the trip from Dujiangyan if a long car ride is something you’d rather avoid. We left around 8AM on a weekday and the roads were surprisingly very quiet, there was almost no traffic stopping us at any part of the journey.
It’s a beautiful route, especially once you’re out of all the tunnels through the mountains! The villages are pretty and there are plenty of signs for the pandas along the way, and before I knew it we were there. Now because my friend works there, he was able to get me in – so I don’t know the entry price, I would assume around the 60RMB mark, and I think the base is open from 8:30AM-5PM. I also went in the staff entrance so I’m not sure what the amenities are at the front entrance – I think there are at least toilets and a shop. In the base there is one main ‘hub’ in the middle at the No1 Kindergarten House which had toilets and a shop selling many panda souvenirs and also some snacks, but overall there weren’t many food options in the base so definitely bring a lunch and snacks with you, though there were a couple of vending machines around the base to buy water.
The base is a really good size for a 1-day visit, is easy to navigate, and has a really good number of pandas to see. Depending on the time of year you visit, I also thought it was the best cub-viewing experience of this trip. On any of my trips to the Chengdu base, I’ve never seen cubs together with their mothers, only together in the nursery, whereas here was the first time I saw cub(s) living together with their mothers – and not just a couple, I saw a total of 7 mother+cub sets! That is really a special thing to see^ Alike the Dujiangyan and Ya’an Bifengxia bases, here you can only view the pandas when they’re outside and there is nowhere where you’re indoors and viewing the pandas – so it’s quite exposed especially in sunny weather. This is the only time I got sunburnt, and that was with SPF50 and it being a slightly cooler and more overcast day! Despite the weather still being warm, I saw almost all of the pandas here, and really had a great experience. I visited on a weekday in May, it really wasn’t busy at all and at most there were around 20 people viewing one panda (and then they all dispersed), often I was the only one viewing a panda at any given moment.
The base is laid out in 2 sections – first there are the Outer Ring houses, of which there 6 with a total of 14 yards. Two of these yards had mothers with twins in them, and they happened to be the first ones that I saw, which was amazing to walk into! The inner houses (on the inside of the perimeter road) are then split into 2 sections. There are 3 Inner Ring houses each with 4 yards, and 2 Kindergarten Houses with 7 yards between them. The pandas are split quite nicely, so there are young ones to be seen in different areas around the base – the kindergarten yards did have some adults in them too. I started with the Outer Ring houses then worked my way inside and did the Kindergarten houses before having lunch with my friend in the staff canteen where I got to meet some of his colleagues and have a nice meal. After lunch I then went through the Inner Ring houses before making my way back around and getting second (and sometimes third) visits at most of the yards before leaving around 3:30PM.
Outer Ring House 1
The ‘Outer Ring House 1’ has 4 yards in it, with 5 pandas living here – 3 individually and a set of twins living together. And sadly on this occasion I didn’t see Sheng Yi 升谊 come out – she was the third cub to be born in Malaysia at Zoo Negara and made the journey to China in 2023.
Qiao Sen 乔森
I didn’t see much of Qiao Sen 乔森, he was enjoying the shade on a platform near the back of his yard when I went to see him – he is still quite a young male being 5 years old. It seems like he used to perhaps be known as Qiao Bao Bao 乔包包. He has a twin brother, Qiao Dou Dou 乔兜兜/Qiao Lin 乔林, who I saw later on my visit, their mother Qiao Qiao 乔乔 was the second successfully reintroduced wild panda – meaning she was released into the wild to mate, and then was brought back into captivity giving birth to twins. This has been a huge step for the breeding programme as it increases the genetic diversity in the captive pool of pandas.
Sen Sen 森森
Sen Sen 森森 is another solo-male panda living in the Outer Ring House 1. He’s 11 years old, so is a young and strong adult male. I can’t see much about him online, but he has a number of siblings – his mother is Ying Ying 英英 who passed away in 2023 at a great age of 32, and had given birth to 9 litters of cubs, an amazing contribution to captive breeding. The first time I went past the yard he was sleeping up the back near the house, but the second time he was having a good wander around exploring the whole space.
Bing Zi 冰仔 and Bing Bao 冰宝
The final pandas to share about in the Outer Ring House 1 are twins Bing Zi 冰仔 and Bing Bao 冰宝, males who were born in 2021 so are now 3 years old. The first time I went to their yard they were both sitting at the back mostly in the shade and enjoying their bamboo, the second time one was walking around and the other was sleeping in a super cute position^ Their yard had really good shade cover, so good for them to be able to sit out but not in the sun, but not so ideal for pictures, it was tricky to find a good angle. Now it seems that Bing Bao is also known as Bing Tuo Tuo 冰坨坨 and Bing Zi is also known as Bing Duen Duen 冰墩墩 – which may sound familiar, this is the name of the mascot of the China 2022 Winter Olympic games. These two have been entertaining the panda public with many cute pictures and videos to be found online.
In quite a ‘full circle’ moment – in looking these two up online, turns out I saw their mother Bing Bing 冰冰 back in 2017 at the Dujiangyan base. This was when she was 2 years old and living with her twin brother Qing Qing 青青 who has the distinctive pink patch on his lower lip/chin. Interestingly in April 2024, a month before my visit, Bing Bing was exchanged to the Chengdu Base, so perhaps I also saw her there!
