I was so excited to see that the San Diego Zoo were finally getting pandas back! The first long-term panda family left the zoo back in 2019 after an amazing 23-year stay with a successful breeding programme. Finally in June 2024, a brand new pair of pandas made their way from China to San Diego, and made their public debut in August 2024 – this year I made it all the way there to meet them:
The San Diego Zoo has a great history, and not only with giant pandas – but more on that in the next post! I had 2 days to spend at the zoo to visit with the pandas and overall I had an amazing time and a great experience. When planning I looked at what extra experiences that the zoo offered and decided to participate in the ‘Early Morning with Pandas Walking Tour’ to add to my trip – more on that below.
The pandas live in the Denny Sanford Panda Ridge which is located within the Asian Passage area of the zoo, and around here it’s all about the pandas. In the area is a conveniently located Panda Shop with all the panda themed merch that you could want, and also the Hua Mei Cafe serving up Asian-inspired food and snacks – of course I visited both! The cafe had a really nice selection of options and I enjoyed the lo mein vegetable noodles for lunch on both days. I thought portion size was good and price was about average for zoo food. I also picked up an ice cream one afternoon, but this seemed a bit pricey – I ended up upgrading to a sundae, getting more ice cream and toppings for only a dollar or two more than an ice cream cone. The shop had so many things, they really carried all the panda merch at this location – mugs, cups, soft toys, kids and adults T-shirts and hoodies, stickers, keychains, blankets … you name it they probably had it. I did my main shopping here and picked up a sweatshirt that I had seen online beforehand and was keen to buy, along with a mug, pins, stickers and a reusable shopping bag. There were some really nice options available and prices were pretty good – I was tempted by a cap and another T-shirt, and I’m maybe having some regrets about not getting them 😅
There is a queuing system in operation to see the pandas, to be honest I never really had to wait very long to see them and I didn’t struggle getting a spot once I was inside. I was there on a Friday and Saturday, on the Friday it was a bit quieter and there was no timed entry booking, on the Saturday there was both a timed entry option or a general line up option. For the timed entry a QR code was displayed both at the park entrance and in the panda area and you could go to the link and book a free specific time to be able to enter the panda area. Now, on the Saturday I was at my early morning tour, so got there before most guests and could make my bookings with all time options available – I ended up being able to make several bookings for across the day, all before my tour even started. For me this worked out perfectly and I was able to have easy access to the pandas but also have set time that I knew I could go and visit with other animals. The general line up option looked to always have about 20-30 groups of visitors in it, but this was just about constantly moving.
Within the panda area on the Saturday there were also lots of staff/volunteers who were available to provide information about the pandas – I found the people I encountered on my visits to be very informative and really knew a lot about pandas and could easily answer all questions asked (coming from someone who also knows a lot about pandas). I thought this was done very nicely, and more panda zoos I’ve visited could do with having staff or volunteers around more often.
Also in the Panda Ridge were the red pandas, which is pretty typical for most panda zoos. It was quite warm when I visited and these guys preferred to be hidden in the trees in the shade, despite a water sprinkler being on at the ground level. Always super cute to see, and placed well so you could see them while waiting to move up in the panda line. The staff/volunteers were also very well informed on the red pandas.
The panda viewing was all through glass, this could be tricky at times with the sun and reflections on the glass, but with a little time and patience, I was able to get the right angles to get some nice photos. And when the pandas were at certain spots in their yards then I was able to hold my camera above the glass line and get some unobstructed shots. Viewing of the pandas was only in their outdoor yards, there was no public viewing of their inside spaces, these were completely off-show.
Early Morning with Pandas Walking Tour experience
The Early Morning with Pandas Walking Tour experience is offered by pre-booking only via the website. This is offered daily and is priced from $96 per person, with pricing varied by day/time of year – I paid $114 for a Saturday in May. This price doesn’t include your entry to the zoo, this needs to be purchased separately. I booked around a week in advance and there was plenty of availability, if you’re wanting to go in peak periods like during school holidays/vacations, then I would book as far in advance if possible. The tour group had around 30 people in it and everyone was provided with a headset to be able to hear the guide, this was great as you could easily get quite spread out on the way to the pandas and at the pandas themselves. With the group were two guides from the education department, and also two volunteers – all 4 were very knowledgable about the zoo and pandas and you could tell how passionate they were about animals and conservation.
The tour is an hour long, occurring in the hour before the zoo is open. The tour sets off at 8:30AM, with check in from 8:20AM. You are recommended to arrive 30 minutes in advance in case of traffic, I didn’t encounter much traffic and arrived just before 8AM. There were already some volunteers here at this time and access was open for you to buy tickets and pay for parking at the automated kiosks, as well as the public toilets being open. Around 8:15AM the education guides came out and checked people in for the tour by checking tickets, everyone was given a sticker identifying them as being on a tour, and then the volunteers gave out the headsets with instructions. We had a brief introduction outside of the main entrance, then we headed inside the zoo, scanning our zoo entry tickets on the way. It was around a 10-15 minute walk to Panda Ridge and on the way the guide gave information on the history and forming of the zoo. Then we reached the Asian Passage and stopped for a few photos with signs on the way. One of the education guides had gone on ahead to check where the pandas were, which was handy, so we went to Yun Chuan first where the guides then provided lots of panda information. Compared with other talks I’ve listened to or attended, this really was a comprehensive provision of panda information, and the guides could answer a lot of detailed biology questions – there was one girl there around 10-12 years old who was giving them a real grilling with the questions! Then once female Xin Bao was out, we headed over there to see her and get more information. There was even a special viewing section off to one side that was opened for us so there was time for some glass-less viewing/photographing opportunities! One of my favourite parts was hearing the history of pandas at the zoo – they even had a fantastic family tree diagram of all the pandas who were there, which included how the current pandas fit into the first family of pandas … so really one big panda family! The lineage is very extensive, and actually there were a lot of grandpandas of Bai Yun and Gao Gao that couldn’t fit! Many of their grandpandas are now at other international panda zoos and have had cubs themselves, and many of them I’ve seen and have loved visiting. It was all feeling very full circle. We were able to go between the two pandas across the 45minute period that we had in the pandas before the zoo opened to the public which really was great, and we could ask as many questions as we wanted to the team. One very interesting thing I learned was the renovation of the panda space between 2019 and 2024 – the yard that one of the pandas is living in now used to be the whole panda space and it was previously split into two separate yards. That’s crazy to think of because it wasn’t that huge a space, so a change for the better for sure, and I think both of the yards now look great.
Overall I think this experience was completely worth the price and if I’m back in the future I would definitely do it again – I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a special activity to add to their visit to the San Diego Zoo.
Yun Chuan 云川
First up, it’s Yun Chuan 云川, the male panda living at San Diego Zoo! He was born in 2019, making him 6 years old on my visit. He has a direct link to the first San Diego Zoo panda family – his mum is Zhen Zhen who was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007 to Gao Gao and Bai Yun. Zhen Zhen moved to China in 2010 and has had a successful breeding history there, with Yun Chuan being her second pregnancy.
Yun Chuan was the first panda I saw on each of the two days of my visit. On day 1, at the start of the day he was sitting up on a platform and eating some bamboo, I spotted him from the walkway bridge above the panda habitat which gave a really interesting perspective on the Panda Ridge area as a whole. Then I headed down into the ridge itself to see him close up. He was in a bit of a tricky spot to see with the glass and the sun reflection, but overall I managed to get some pictures and perseverance paid off by returning across the day as I was able to get photos over the top of the glass when he was sitting at the right spot! On day 2 we spotted him first on the panda tour, he was initially quite hidden in the bamboo enjoying his breakfast but eventually he came out and sat in a perfect spot near the front! Towards the end of the tour time he really treated us by walking up the hillside and enjoying some bamboo up there – great to see him use his whole space, this yard is particularly extensive in size heading right up the hill, great for pandas and really good for viewing here. This was honestly so exciting for me too see and I loved it. I headed back 4 more times over the day and managed to get some more pictures which I was really happy about.
Xin Bao 鑫宝
Then we have female panda Xin Bao 鑫宝! She was born in 2020, with her being 5 years old on my visit. Now she doesn’t have a previous family link to San Diego Zoo, but I’ve been able to put together a few of her relations and luckily I’ve seen some of them: she is a twin, with a sister Zhi Zhi, who I’ve not seen, and their mum is Jun Zhu who I have seen and when I wrote about her previously, I knew that Xin Bao was her daughter! I saw Jun Zhu on my May 2024 trip to the Dujiangyan Base, she was super pretty and I got some very nice photos of her. She has had several cubs, however Xin Bao is the only one of them that I’ve seen.
Xin Bao definitely appeared the more shy of the two pandas, however I did manage to see her on both days of my visit. On day 1 she was sleeping under a tree initially, and spent most of the morning there. Luckily I was also able to see her awake and she headed over to the other side of her yard and climbed up onto one of her frames for a snooze. Even though I went round the Panda Ridge area several times across the day, I didn’t see too much of her over the afternoon as she ended up spending quite a bit of time in the back off-show area. On day 2, she was luckily active during the early morning tour, and seeing her climb up to the top of a tree and settle there for the whole morning was adorable. I was also able to spot her from the bridge as well and saw her enjoying some bamboo in a position that was quite obscured from the panda viewing window. And I ended the day being able to see her enjoying some bamboo in an easily-viewable position too which was very lovely to end the trip with. She’s a cutie for sure and I definitely look forward to making a return trip and seeing her again =)
