Since my first (and only) visit to Ocean Park only 9 months ago so much has changed! Knowing that a new adult pair of pandas was arriving from China, I was already keen to visit again and see them, but the birth of twins to first-time mum Ying Ying at 19 years old, well it was no question that I would return on my next trip! From stepping off the metro at the park entrance, the impact of both the twins and the new pandas could be seen – panda-mania has overtaken Hong Kong! In the days leading up to my visit my social media pages were absolutely filled with all the places you could see panda pictures, food and merch over Hong Kong, and I got incredibly lucky in that I was already travelling when it was announced that the twins would make their debut on February 16th – my visit was on the 21st! I don’t think it had crossed my mind that I might not see them XD
I ended my trip staying in panda-paradise – what panda lover wouldn’t want to stay in a panda themed hotel?!?! When visiting the Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou I knew I wanted to stay nearby to make the most of my time there. Chimelong has a whole series of resorts, with the Guangzhou site being just one of them with a number of parks, activities and hotels on offer, of course I chose the Chimelong Panda Hotel for my stay! They’ve gone all out, it is completely all about the pandas here. When I went on to Hong Kong I knew I also wanted to stay close to Ocean Park, and you can’t get closer than the Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel. It’s quite literally on the doorstep of the park, and while the whole hotel isn’t panda themed, you can choose a panda themed room!
Time to show some more of the Chimelong Safari Park – of course, I took some time to see the other animals as well as the pandas, but it’s a huge park and I didn’t quite get around to seeing it all, it definitely feels like 2 full days would be needed to really make the most of it (so will aim for that next time!) however that won’t be a cheap trip. I paid around £30 for my 1-day ticket, so a more premium zoo in China and coming the a premium price tag – for me it has a lot of pandas, so the price is worth it, but they do also have a wide range of other animals on show, including some I’ve not seen before.
The final panda to share about at Chimelong Safari Park – it’s Guo Qing 国庆! Guo Qing was living in the separate section that you walked around to after viewing Meng Meng and Mei Zhu, and she was very very popular, always lots of people standing to watch her and I think she was loving the attention^ Guo Qing was 5.5 years old on my visit, so still quite young – she was very active and hungry, perhaps she’s been one of the only pandas I’ve not seen sleeping at all during my visit! She was very much enjoying climbing and being up high. The first time I went past she was sitting up on a log, then climbed over onto her high chair where there were some bamboo shoots to enjoy – so cute to see this, this was the sort of activity levels I was hoping for, and to see the chair getting used. She also played with her tire swing (treats were inside the tire), and then went into her wheel, where there was another enrichment ball tied up with treats inside too. She was very thorough in making sure she got every last one. Later she was up on a platform enjoying bamboo, and at the end of the day she was climbing again – so cute to see her dismount off the chair, opting for a head-first method and doing a roll mid-way before running off quickly once she got down!
There wasn’t a lot of information about her, but I know her name means ‘national day’ and that’s because she was born on China’s 70th anniversary, so I think that’s a nice touch. Her mum is Mei Qing, who I saw in the yard with the train already. Guo Qing is described to have a bold and active personality and I certainly saw that on my visit. There are lots of very adorable photos of her and her bold personality online, those are definitely worth a search!
And the third panda of the triplets, the oldest and only girl, Meng Meng 萌萌 – and even more special, she had her first cub in 2024, a girl named Mei Zhu 妹珠! I was so excited to see this duo, and they sure were a highlight of my visit to Chimelong Safari Park. These two were living in a slightly separate area to the main panda walkthrough, but once my Instagram followers helped me out, I was sorted to see them – on my visit in February 2025 access to this area (and several other animals too) opened at 11:30AM, so actually a bit of a blessing as there was plenty of time to view other pandas first, then could go line up to get a more quiet viewing experience. Until around 2PM, I saw Mei Zhu outside on both occasions that I went through this area, she was sleeping up in a tree right in the middle of the yard (behind her super cute pink chair, I love it!), and I didn’t see Meng Meng on these occasions. Both were inside in the larger space on my later afternoon visits, on the first both were awake and I saw some super adorable interactions between the two, although mostly Meng Meng wanted to rest and Mei Zhu wanted to play XD On my last visit of the day both were sleeping, so a perfect time to need to leave at. It was quite a bit busier in the afternoon vs. the morning, with queueing to get into viewing required in the afternoon.
While I didn’t get to see Mei Zhu in the nursery room, it was nice that the curtain was open – the little doors where I have seen pictures of Mei Zhu getting out through are tiny, that would have been so cute to see! There are of course lots of photos and videos online of Mei Zhu‘s short life so far, and being a famous surviving triplet, also a lot online of Meng Meng‘s life as well. Sadly I didn’t see a sign for information about Meng Meng, however there was some work going on in the area, so the signage may have been behind some of the temporary walls.
