When walking from the original section of the base to the new section, the Panda Reception Hall area is the first you will come to, and within that the Spring Sun Pavilion is the first panda house you will see of the 4 houses in this section. All 4 of the pavilions have inside and outside viewing for the pandas, but on my visit all the pandas were kept inside due to the high temperatures. Us humans are all outside for all the viewing and because it’s all glass on the pandas inside homes, there were sometimes difficulties in seeing with reflections. This also meant that I didn’t see all the pandas living in each pavilion – they rotate the use of the inside areas, so some pandas were in off-show areas due to the outside yards not being in use. So in some areas I saw different pandas on both days, and some I saw the same pandas. In the Spring Sun Pavilion I happened to see a trio of young ones on both days, and then the same sub-adult male on both days – currently on the app there are 6 pandas listed for this pavilion, so I potentially didn’t see 2 of them (perhaps they weren’t living in this pavilion on my trip however).
Ai Lun 艾伦
Ai Lun 艾伦 (or perhaps now An Yi 安逸?) was the only solo panda I saw in this pavilion – he is a subadult at almost 6 years old when I saw him having been born in 2018. He is a twin with a brother Ai Mi 艾米, and their mother is Ai Li – a name which I’ve seen pop up a few times now, these were her first cubs and she’s gone on to have 3 further cubs since then, including Ai Si and Ai Lun who I also saw on this visit. And I saw her too later in the day, photos to follow! Ai Lun and Ai Mi also used to live in a trio with Yun Wu (who I also already saw) and there are some cute photos of this group online. I can’t see much else online about him. When I approached his space he was enjoying some bamboo shoots near the keeper door, but then he got up and came right over to where I was standing and he was so close to me. Then he settled right at the front of the crowd with a big pile of bamboo – and that’s where I saw him again on the second day.
Bei Xia 北侠 + Ji Ran 绩然 + Ke Nian 科念
The other space had 3 young pandas living in it together – there were only signs for Bei Xia 北侠 and Ji Ran 绩然, but looking on the app, the third panda is Ke Nian 科念. This trio were almost 2 years old on my visit, such a fun age to watch cubs interacting with each other! When I saw them they were always eating! When I walked up to the window I just happened to pick a spot near the keeper door, and almost immediately one of the cubs started heading my way and I was thinking what a good spot I’d picked – then bamboo shoots were suddenly launched through the window in the door! The cub had heard the keeper and knew what was coming so got in first before the other two, who a few minutes later ran over to also get in on the snacks^ I’m not good at identifying pandas, so I don’t know which one is which, but they’re all pretty cute!
Bei Xia is a male born on the 10th of July 2022 to mother Bei Chuan – who is a very popular panda. She was born in the wild in 2006 and was suspected to have been injured in the 2008 earthquake and was subsequently brought into captivity in 2010. She had a number of injuries upon her capture, and had to undergo many different treatments – so it’s wonderful to see her having thrived and joining the breeding programme. Bei Xia has a twin brother (Bei Chen 北辰), and they also have an older sister Chuan Zai born in 2018. I didn’t really notice this at the time, but did when looking through the photos, but I did think one panda looked like they were walking a bit oddly – this one must have been Bei Xia, for he was born without a left front paw (conflicting info online, he was either born without it or it needed to be amputated)! So he is the panda in the first photos below, he was the first one to head to the door for the bamboo shoots! He clearly hasn’t let his lack of paw hold him back at all. There are lots of photos and videos of him online.
Ji Ran is also a male, born on the 29th of June 2022 to mother Ji Li (who lives in Panda Creek Valley, photos coming soon!) who is a very experienced mother. One of his older sisters is Ji Xiao who I saw at Panda Valley. When he was a younger cub, Ji Ran had a more grey looking fur, which runs in his family line and made him popular online. There are quite a few pictures and videos available of him and it looks like he has quite a long face compared to the other two here, so I think I can pick him out in the pictures.
Ke Nian, or nicknamed Pi Mei 屁妹/Gong Zhu 宫主, is a female born on the 22nd of June 2022 to mother Olympia. In 2023 she was officially adopted and given the name Gong Zhu. As with most cubs these days, there is quite a gallery of photos of her online, she has particularly distinctive fluffy ears^
