So I made it to the Ya’an Bifengxia Giant Panda Base! In case you missed it, I already shared getting to Ya’an and getting to the base itself, finally let’s get to the pandas. As I said in those previous posts, there isn’t a lot of information online or at least information that has come from recent post-Covid trips. Hopefully I can provide some up to date info in these posts. Let’s get into it:
You can find some maps of the base online, with the base layout unchanged so it gives you an idea – there are three main areas to the base, their English names being the White Bear Ground, Overseas-born Giant Panda Paradise, and Panda Kindergarten+Breeding Station. The base is large, and being based on a mountain in a gorge, there are many uphills/downhills, and a lot of steps involved at some panda viewing areas. There is a tourist bus available to get around with a couple of bus stops – this costs 20RMB for a return trip, on my visit with my friend, we ended up buying two tickets each. You buy tickets immediately inside the entrance gate and there is clear signage advertising the bus and where to buy tickets. Each of the bus stops around the park has shaded seating areas which was really great to be able to get out of the sun. When it’s quiet, you can also request stops, when my friend and I were the only passengers, we said we wanted off at Xiang Xiang (who stays in the Overseas-born Giant Panda Paradise) which is uphill from the set bus stop for that area and the driver was able to let us off there, so it’s worthwhile asking for this is if you want to go to that area on the right side of the Overseas section.
In the entrance area there is also a small museum building – while it’s a large-looking building, the exhibit is just one room on the ground floor, but there are also toilets here (including a Western toilet, albeit there was no lock on the door), and a large air-conditioned lobby with seating and a couple of vending machines selling souvenir coins. The museum was interesting, as someone who knows a lot about pandas already, it wasn’t new information to me, but gives a good summary of pandas and the research and progress made across the years. There were also some scientific inclusions, which as a scientist, I like to see. Outside here there was also a panda sculpture in the middle of a pond, which makes for a nice photo opportunity.
Just to the right of the museum was a pergola with nice planting leading to a 3.5km walk – now we decided to take the path to see where it went initially, we didn’t really fancy walking that far in the heat, because we could see a building just ahead. My friend who has been before didn’t recognise this, so it’s a recent build. It didn’t have any pandas, but was clearly set up as a panda nursery. The first room we looked into was just a typical indoor panda enclosure, but further along was a standard panda nursery, comparable to what I have seen in the nurseries at the Chengdu base with incubators etc. It didn’t look used at all, so this was an interesting observation that maybe breeding was planned for here or the nursery will be required in the future.
One thing to also point out about this base is that all panda viewing is outside – you can’t see any of the pandas inside, there are no viewing windows and there are no areas where you as a visitor are inside viewing a panda either. The base also doesn’t have a lot of shaded areas, so when you find them (generally by the bus stops, but also at the White Bear Ground) take advantage. There also isn’t a restaurant or cafe, there are just a couple of small stands around with snacks, drinks and some souvenirs, and a larger shop with more souvenirs and some small snacks at the Kindergarten area – so definitely bring snacks with you, unless you want an ice cream in which case there is plenty of that at the base!
White Bear Ground
The White Bear Ground is the first area in the base where you will see pandas – you can walk here easily from the entrance and the route is not too far or hilly either. On the map, this area is shown with two parts on opposite sides of the road, however only the larger of these was open when I was there. The side on the right of the road as you come from the entrance is where I believe Yang Guang and Tian Tian were originally living when they had been on show. I have scoured the web for any further info on where they are now, but have come up with nothing, so I can only guess they are still living off show. Anyway, this area has the fewest pandas, and is where I spent least time on my visit, mostly because these were pandas that I don’t really know (yet). Aside from the pandas, there is also a toilet block in this area and a small souvenir/snack kiosk here (with some seating outside to enjoy your snacks on). There is also a seated and shaded walkway alongside the panda enclosures here, which was great for getting out of the strong midday sun. There are 4 very deep enclosures here on a hillside, they are higher at the back where there are a lot of trees and foliage, and lower in more of a dip at the front, where there are shelters, climbing frames, and water features for you to see the pandas at. Viewing is along the dipped side of the enclosure and you are viewing more a from above position down onto the panda. Some of this viewing is also covered, with some educational questions/info asked and displayed along the way, which I liked to see. On my visit there were a total of 6 pandas living in these 4 enclosures, the first two had single pandas and the second two each had a set of twins.
En En 恩恩
Despite it being the middle of the day and very hot, En En (恩恩) was one of the more active pandas in this area – she was walking in and out from her house, and following a route around her enclosure. Being on one of the ‘ends’ of the 4 enclosures here, you can view her at the side or front, and I stood at the side getting great views of her as this leads right up to her house. It maybe was almost feeding time and she knew the keeper would be by soon to replenish her bamboo! En En has the biggest enclosure of the 4 here, along with the biggest climbing/shade platform for her to eat and rest away from the sun on.
Yi Yi 壹壹
Yi Yi (壹壹) has the second enclosure in the set. The first time I saw him was while I was viewing En En from the side, and could see him lounging in the shade on his platform. Overall, their enclosure had a lot more shade than the first two in this section. The pile of bamboo had been decimated, so this definitely wasn’t the right time to see him active! An hour later, he was having a wander up the hillside of his enclosure and then stopped in the shade of a tree – he did have a look up like he wanted to try climbing, but eventually he settled at the bottom. There wasn’t a lot of shade otherwise in the enclosure.
Jia Bai 佳佰 and Jia Yang 佳阳
I didn’t see much of the twins Jia Bai (佳佰) and Jia Yang (佳阳), these two really preferred to sleep off the bamboo and stay in the shade from the hot sun! One of the twins was always in place on the wooden platform near the front of the enclosure, and I actually didn’t see the second twin until the first one got up and went to bother him! He was sleeping in the shade of the trees near the back of the enclosure, and once the one at the front was done with his nap, he went straight to bother his brother! Typical! These two are still young, so I imagine in cooler conditions are playful and fun to watch.
Fu Tao 福涛 and Fu Lin 福琳
I only briefly caught sight of both Fu Tao (福涛) and Fu Lin (福琳) together taking a nap on their platform, a little later one of them was very active – coming out from inside the indoor house at the back of the enclosure and making their way down to the front with a few stops on the way. They then came under the platform and made their way to the water fountain, having both a drink and a bit of a roll around in it, a perfect way to try and cool down^
