And of course, can’t forget about the sweet new family of 4 living at Ocean Park – dad Le Le 乐乐, mum Ying Ying 盈盈and new baby twins, older sister Jia Jia 加加 and younger brother De De 得得! I was so happy to visit Hong Kong last year and had a great time visiting Le Le and Ying Ying, they gave me a fantastic panda viewing experience. I was overjoyed to hear Ying Ying had become a first-time mum at 19 and twins at that^ I timed my visit unknowingly perfectly, and visited just a few days after the twins were on show to the public for the first time so I got to see them too!
Le Le 乐乐
It’s new dad Le Le! On my first visit Le Le was living in the first yard in the building, on this visit he was in the second ‘lowlands’ yard – meaning guests queued for Ying Ying and the twins first, then could visit with Le Le afterwards. I liked this because then you could spend plenty of time with him. I went through 4 times, and spent lots and lots of time with Le Le on each of those visits, so I got so many photos! Most of the time Le Le was thoroughly enjoying his bamboo, and when he wasn’t eating I did spot him take a brief wander around the yard and stop for a drink of water. I think he was lapping up the attention and he was still getting plenty of that even with the twins next door^ He’s still super handsome though and completely deserves that spotlight!
Ying Ying 盈盈
And I also got to see Ying Ying – she was in the first yard on my visit, although wasn’t out for the first two times I went through, but was out later. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she just wanted time to relax to herself in the back! The first time I saw her she was tucked up in the branches of a tree, and many people were missing see her. The only viewing for her was in the line, so if the line moved a bit faster, you would miss your opportunity. But I got lucky and spotted her awake too, she had a small walk and then she headed over to meet her keeper where she got a big pile of bamboo shoots to enjoy! At the time of my visit she wasn’t spending time on show with the cubs, however as they have gotten older and been on show more, the trio have spent more time together in the exhibit and there are so many cute photos and videos online to check out.
Twins – De De 得得 and Jia Jia 加加
The most anticipated photos, it’s the twins! The male and female pair were born on the 15th of August 2024 and were officially on show from the 16th of February. On my visit, the twins weren’t yet named and were referred to as elder sister and younger brother, but after my visit their names were revealed to have been chosen as Jia Jia for elder sister and De De for younger brother. To help with distinguishing between the two, De De has purple spots painted onto the back of his head and body – for me, this has made identifying them in photos so easy! Viewing of the twins was by queueing and you were supposed to keep moving along the line with no stopping – sometimes this happened, sometimes there was a bit of stopping, so I did find it ok to get pictures, but obviously it wasn’t ideal as someone who wants to get lots of pictures and who would stand there all day to do so!
At my first time through, it was just De De out, he was super cute sitting in the tree branch and trying to climb up further. As I was leaving the viewing, one of the keepers brought out Jia Jia, so I just missed her! I spent a bit of time with Le Le before heading out to queue up again. When I came around the second through fourth times, Jia Jia was always sleeping up in the tree branch! Her photos can be seen at the bottom of this set. De De however showed varying levels of activity, he did some climbing, exploring, testing out some bamboo leaves, and also sleeping – but they were still super young at this visit so to see one cub awake for even a little bit was super lucky.
