Of course a priority panda for me was Yuan Meng 圆梦 – born in France at the Zooparc de Beauval in 2017, he has been living in China since 2023 in this very yard and I’ve seen him annually since then! Now this is my third time seeing him in China, but fourth time overall as I saw him in France before he moved – honestly I feel so lucky about that! And I’ve really enjoyed every visit to see him so I hope that can continue^

On the first day of my visit this time I spent ages at his yard but I had no luck in seeing him, so on my second day this was the first stop for me (worked out well that Hua Hua viewing was only the first day of my visit) and I sped walked up the hill to get to the No1 House quickly. It paid off because he was out and active already. He was walking around his yard a lot, making us of all the space, both the ditch around the perimeter, then would climb up onto the main area and appear out through the trees. I got some great shots of him walking through his water which I was really pleased about as I had scoped out that spot to wait in and then stood for a while waiting for him to come along just at the right place and angle. Closer to lunchtime the keeper came out and threw some more bamboo in for him and he was then pretty content to sit against a ledge and enjoy his feast. Also his white fur is getting dirtier every time I see him, it looks like he had a good role around in the undergrowth before I got there XD

I found viewing him was very easy this time, fewer people seemed interested in stopping for long periods of time and because he kept moving there wasn’t a crowd building up in one place, so I was able to get whatever spot I wanted.

Sweet Mei Lan 美兰, who was born at Zoo Atlanta in 2006 and has been living at the Chengdu Panda Base since 2010. Last year I saw him in the Starry Sky Pavilion, this year he was living in the No5 House, almost neighbours to Hua Hua and He Ye. The yards here are huge and full of foliage, plenty of places to hide out and enjoy bamboo where you’re not in direct view of the public. And that was very much what he was doing, it really was a quick view of him that I got! He was enjoying a pile of bamboo shoots when I saw him, tucked in behind some bushes about 8-10 meters into the yard – so he was a little hidden from view. He was pretty popular, there was a very large group of people watching him when I was there and I heard at least a couple of American accents so he definitely had some fans!

Spending my last 2 days in Chengdu at the Chengdu Panda Base! I am very much at the point where 2 days is a bit short for getting everything in, so I think this will be the last time that I can only do 2 days, I need to try out 3 or possibly even 4 next time – and that’s with some areas not open as well! I’ve written a lot about the base before, there are plenty of other posts to check out for introductions and more general photos, but here just some quick updates and of course the best first pandas to see on a trip: Hua Hua and He Ye =D