I made it to South Korea! This is my first time time in South Korea seeing the panda family that live there in the Everland Resort – the Bao family^ On my visit to Shenshuping Base a few years ago I just missed seeing oldest daughter of the family Fu Bao, she had recently moved to China but wasn’t on show yet to the public, so she’s still to be seen, but now I have seen the parents, Ai Bao and Le Bao (who have been living in South Korea since March 2016!), and younger sisters, twins Rui Bao and Hui Bao =D
Similar to Ocean Park Hong Kong, Everland is a mix of a theme park and a zoo, with a wide range of animals to see but also rides and entertainment. When I went there were both Oz and K Pop Demon Hunters events/theming going on, so there’s really a diversity here. I spent the whole day at the pandas, with a small break to eat and I did check out the tigers as well.
I happened to visit in a cold period – the temperature wasn’t above 0 (although I didn’t think it felt too bad actually, definitely manageable, it was a dry cold and not windy or wet which made a huge difference!), and it had heavily snowed in the day or two before, so it was snowy and icy underfoot. Of course, I was not prepared for this, so while I did have thermals and hand/feet warmers, I was just in my trainers XD But I managed! Much to my own surprise, I don’t do well on icy ground, but the staff had done a great job at clearing main paths and as it was sunny across the day, some of the ice was also melting. Because of this, I think the crowd levels were particularly low, so that worked to my advantage in getting maximum time seeing the pandas!
In Everland they really love their panda family =D There’s a lot of focus on the pandas so of course I love that. At the main panda house there is Ai Bao’s Dessert Cafe which is a cute and cosy cafe with fun themed treats and sweet decorations, and it was very quiet all day there, so no issue getting a seat. On leaving the panda house there is of course, an obligatory gift shop – again, great theming here and so many things to buy, if you can think of it, it’s probably in this shop with a panda on it! You could also buy lots of different things specific to each of the different pandas of the family, which I also really liked. I did find the main shop near the park entrance did have a few different ranges of panda items that I didn’t see in the panda-specific shop, so worth checking that out too. I’m having major regrets about not buying the ‘I ❤️ Bao’ sweatshirt, but no regrets about getting Rui and Hui keychains where they’re wearing little dressing gowns, too cute! Overall I thought everything was well priced and affordable, which was very nice, although for sure I bought a lot of items.
Getting to Everland: now I wouldn’t do this same approach again. Because I was only in South Korea to go to see the pandas and I had an early morning flight out after my visit, I stayed at an airport hotel for convenience (it was a very nice hotel, and would stay again, just not for pandas!). So on the morning of my visit I took a taxi from the hotel, near Incheon Airport, to Everland, which cost 100,000 Won (approx. £50). For around an hours drive, this isn’t bad but that was all the cash I had and I was conscious that I’d been spending a lot of money – so on the way back I took the metro … while I saved money, I certainly didn’t save time as it took over 4 hours to get back to my hotel! There were buses that run from central Seoul to Everland, however it was around an hour from my hotel into the centre so that wasn’t going to save time either. At the end of the day it was fine and I got where I needed to be, but wouldn’t recommend it, I just didn’t have dedicated planning time for this part of the trip.
Le Bao 乐宝
First up, it’s Le Bao 乐宝! Le Bao is the male panda living at Everland and he was born on the 28th of July 2012, making him 13.5 years old on my visit, still a young boy! He was awake the first time I went into the house, sitting on one of his platforms eating – his bamboo was always in this spot so he was here a few times across the day. It was great to see him really make use of all his space and the features of his indoor yard – indoor viewing was about half through glass and half glass-free which was good for photos and seeing him clearly. After eating he climbed up his frame before climbing down, was good to see him active, and later I also saw him climb one of his small trees in the inside yard too which was so cute, I was in a perfect spot for photos so I got really lucky with that. At the end of the day I got lucky and perseverance paid off because he went outside! The keepers had made cute little snow pandas and decorated the outside platform with them, and he was sat right in the middle of it all with a big pile of bamboo – such a great moment! Le Bao was definitely the most active of the 4 pandas at Everland.
Ai Bao 爱宝
Next we have Ai Bao 爱宝, the female and mum of the Bao family – she was born on the 13th of July 2013, making her 12.5 years when I was there. When I first went through the panda house she was sleeping, and she did spend about half the time I was there asleep, but luckily I got some awake moments too^ Like Le Bao, Ai Bao also made use of one of her indoor trees and climbed up, finding an apparently comfy spot there to settle for a sleep! She also made good use of all of her indoor space, but definitely had preference for the platform where her bamboo was put out onto. She had a very nice ice block in her inside space and despite it being no warmer than 0 degrees outside, she seemed very happy laying across the ice! And alike Le Bao, I also saw Ai Bao outside at the end of the day, honestly was so excited and happy to see that! Her outside yard was quite sloped and she was right at the back having some bamboo when I got there, luckily she headed down to the front to her snow panda sculptures before I left and I saw her eating a little panda-shaped carrot which was also super adorable. I think perhaps she’s enjoying her alone time after being with the twins for a few years, although I’m sure given the success of panda breeding and the popularity of pandas in South Korea that there will be more cubs on the horizon.
Rui Bao + Hui Bao
And then of course the twins – Rui Bao and Hui Bao! They had been living separately from mum for a little while when I visited, and luckily I got the timing right as the 2nd Panda House had only recently opened to be able to view them. They were born on the 7th of July 2023, making them just over 2 years old when I saw them, and what absolute cutie toddler pandas they are! The 2nd Panda House had a separate line to enter, and here the time limit was 5 minutes – I’m not sure how many went in at a time but I felt it was an ok number and viewing didn’t feel too crowded. The viewing area is noticeably quite small, however the house does seem to be built on a hillside so I think there was limited space to work with, and of course, the pandas do deserve more space than the viewing public. One thing I really liked was the signage about them with their names, ages (in days) and weights – while they’re quite different in weight on paper, I couldn’t tell the difference when looking at them as I thought they looked about the same size.
They were much less active than both parents and spent most of the day sleeping – luckily it was quiet when I visited and I never had to wait more than 5-10 minutes to see them, so I went back to check if they were awake many times! Later in the afternoon they did wake up and I got to see afternoon snack time, and then after that they did interact a bit which was very cute to see. I think maybe with the snowy weather they had maybe been out a lot and exploring on the previous day and I just caught the rest day after that. But that happens – I still got to see these cuties and they really are super cute pandas^
