Next moving to the central portion of the base and the Kindergarten houses – there are two, named 1 and 2. House 1 has 3 yards and all were very large, with lots of rock and wood climbing options along with trees. House 2 has 4 yards, these were a little smaller than in House 1 and actually I only saw adult pandas living in this house! I didn’t end up spending much time in these two areas as there just always seemed to be more activity elsewhere, but there were cubs living here to see (just sleeping when I saw them^).
Wang Jia 旺佳 + cubs
Now I didn’t actually see Wang Jia 旺佳 herself, but I did see the two cubs she has with her – unfortunately no idea if they are twins or not, but these two were enjoying snoozing on their wooden platform. This was quite shaded across the whole day, so I can understand their decision. Luckily this platform was right near the shop window – you can stand in the shop and view these cubs and the yard perfectly! Wang Jia‘s name pops up quite a bit on social media, so she is an experienced mother with several cubs before these ones. Something special about her is that she is a wild rescue, rescued when she was young, so her breeding success is great to see for the captive population.
Da Bai Tu 大白兔 + cubs
The other cubs I spotted in Kindergarten House 1 were that of Da Bai Tu 大白兔 – two cuties who alike the above, also spent their whole day enjoying a snooze! I didn’t see Da Bai Tu herself either, but again, didn’t spend a lot of time in this area – it was a super quiet space, there were no other visitors around this house whenever I was there. These two started out on the wooden central platform, then when I saw them later in the afternoon they were on the rocky structure, I’m a bit sad I didn’t see them move! They also had a fun climbing frame, would have been amazing to see them play on it (panda going down a slide is still on my bucket list!). Da Bai Tu was born at Beijing Zoo, but had a rough start to life, needing to be quickly transferred to the Ya’an Bifengxia Base for crucial early attention, luckily she pulled through and returned to Beijing Zoo still as a youngster, and is now a strong panda mother herself after joining the breeding programme in 2017. I really like her name, it’s quite distinctive compared to a lot of other pandas, and certainly memorable (it means ‘big white rabbit’), hopefully I’ll get to see her on a future trip. There are some cute videos online of this little trio that you can check out!
Yang Hua 阳花
Next up is Yang Hua 阳花, who lives in House 2 – she is an adult female, and I didn’t see her with any cubs so I think she is currently living alone. She’s 14 years old and has had 4 pregnancies, giving birth in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021 – her youngest is Jiao Yang who still lives at Shenshuping but with her cousin (I also saw this duo!). There is a cute video of her recently on YouTube, introducing her as Fu Bao‘s neighbour, so hopefully she is getting some attention too, because she looked like a super cute and laidback panda – thoroughly enjoying a big pile of bamboo and shoots when I saw her.
? Panda
The final panda to share in this post is a little bit of a mystery – there were several large film cameras set up next to this yard, and there was no sign with the panda’s name/details. This did make me wonder if it was Fu Bao living here, but then the panda did appear in the door and none of the camera operators leapt up to get footage, so I was a bit dubious. Then I met a friend and we spoke to someone who said it was maybe Ling Yan/Ling Lang however the only panda named Ling Yan I can find lives somewhere else, so ultimately I’m not sure who I saw, but whoever it is, is a cute panda! This one was very adamant about not getting out of the door and spent the whole time hanging in the middle of it, both resting and eating some bamboo. Just in case it had been Fu Bao, I took a lot of pictures and think I got some super cute ones. Would love to find out who this is!
