When I started taking trips to visit pandas, going to the US never really crossed my mind as an option – and I was quite happy because we have plenty of pandas to see here in Europe. But back in 2018 I was planning out where I could go in the Autumn and somehow Washington DC ended up on the list – there was the option for a direct flight from Edinburgh, and it only took around 7 hours, and I was going to get a pretty good deal with my Expedia points, so I persuaded my mum to join me on my first trip to see American pandas! Also having seen Tai Shan and Bao Bao the previous year in Dujiangyan, I was quite looking forward to the prospect of seeing little brother Bei Bei while he was still living in Washington DC with his parents.
Back in November 2017 I made my second visit to the Chengdu Panda Base and spent a whole day here, which is definitely what you need to see everything more than once! On my first visit I took public transport to get to the base, this time round I took a taxi, so got there much earlier – from the centre of Chengdu it took under 30 minutes and cost around 50RMB. Getting here earlier made the difference with both beating some traffic and seeing the pandas more active in the morning. When the pandas slowed down for an afternoon snooze, I stopped off in a cafe for a break too, then did my second lap of the Base later in the day. Hopefully you enjoy this selection of photos from my trip!
I already wrote about the CCRCGP Dujiangyan Panda Base in my introduction post a little while back, and there I shared about my first trip to the base back in 2016 – I visited again in 2017 and got some great pictures from this trip too, I just had to put together a selection to share! On this trip I visited in an afternoon and the base was almost empty – there was a group doing the keeper experience (learning about pandas and their care, helping out with cleaning of the enclosures, and preparing the bamboo and other snacks), and a few visitors who were serious photographers, with camera lenses the length of my arm! But that really was it, we had the place mostly to ourselves, which was great to experience, and such a quiet and peaceful environment to watch the pandas from – which makes a big contrast to the Chengdu Panda Base.
Edinburgh Zoo closed back in March 2020, and finally at the end of June was able to re-open again! There are of course a number of measures in place to keep it safe for everyone, with limited numbers of guests permitted, timed entry slots and social distancing observed to name a few. As a Zoo member, I was able to book a members slot to visit and went on the first weekend of opening on the 4th of July, at this time there was still a 5mile travel ‘ban’ as such, you shouldn’t be travelling more than that distance from your home, so it was still local guests, however that was soon lifted and has allowed more guests the option to visit. Tickets are selling out almost a couple of weeks in advance, so if you’re looking for a specific date, definitely check to book sooner rather than later. It was a little damp on our visit, but not enough to spoil our visit! There is also a new map with the one-way system marked on, and around the paths are various arrows and signs indicating where you should be going – some visitors seemed to not be paying too much attention to these, however there were staff members around to help direct. There were also hand-sanitising stations available, and the toilets (along with some animal viewing areas) were designated as ‘one troop at a time’ to keep with distancing (again, some guests were ignoring this at viewing areas). Some of the animal viewings also had queue systems set up, particularly at the pandas and the lions, however everyone was pretty orderly, and distancing was mostly observed between groups. Now onto the animals!
Pairi Daiza in Belgium is one of the most beautiful zoos I’ve been to – it really can’t even be described as just a zoo, it’s very much more a park with beautiful gardens and scenery to also enjoy. It’s definitely an experience! Pairi Daiza is fairly new, having first opened 1993, but you would never guess being there. Everything about the place is amazing, and for sure my pictures don’t highlight that enough, nor do they cover the whole park – one day is really not enough to cover everything thoroughly, and as a panda fan this was the focus of my visit in the Summer of 2017. I also visited Pairi Daiza at the start of January 2020, however the weather wasn’t so good for taking pictures; I was also due to visit in June a couple of weeks ago, but we’re working on re-scheduling, hopefully we’ll make it by the end of the Summer months!
