Next up from the Chengdu Panda Base, visiting the Sunshine Nursery House. For me, this house has changed a lot from my last visit to this one, and especially from pre-2020 to now. This used to be almost strictly cubs and was always where I could see cubs playing. This time it was a lot of adult pandas, and I didn’t see any of them with cubs, but maybe this was just due to the timing of my visit. I did still see some 2023-born cubs in the inside spaces, and luckily I saw these on both days I was there. The one-way system is also still in place from my last visit, but this time there at least was only a short line to get in the inside viewing. But this house definitely isn’t quite as exciting for me as it used to be. The shop does have some pretty good souvenirs though, and the food stall here had a different selection of foods to last time (lots of panda shapes of course^).
Xiang Bing
Xiang Bing 香冰 was the first panda I saw in this house in the one-way system. She was enjoying her time outside, her yard was quite sunny though, so I think I got lucky to see her as it was probably approaching temperatures where she would have needed to go in. She is now 17 years old and her sign says she is active and destructive, now I didn’t see any of that, but she sat in such a cute position on the rock like it was a seat to enjoy her bamboo. I’ve seen Tian Tian at Edinburgh Zoo do this before and it’s just so adorable, I love it! Xiang Bing was the final cub of mother Bing Bing, who had her aged 21 which set a record of the oldest panda at the base to give birth. Xiang Bing is perhaps the mother of one of the cubs I saw in this house – she had her first cub aged 13 in 2020 (a female named Xiang Guo, whose father is Gong Zai, who also happened to be living in this house when I was there and who I saw in 2023), so by 2024 may have had another cub.
Xiao Yatou
The only other adult I actually saw was Xiao Yatou 小丫头, who had prime spot as the closest outdoor yard to the indoor entrance – so she was seen by everyone lining up to get inside! She is an 18 year old and described as being cute and typically sticks out her tongue, I didn’t see this, but I agree she is a cute panda^ Xiao Yatou is an experienced mother, she had her first cub aged 6 in 2012, and has had at least one other pregnancy which resulted in twins back in 2019. I suspect she is the mother of one/two of the cubs here too. I can’t find much information about her online, but she was happy to sit out in the sun enjoying her breakfast =)
2023-born Cubs
And the final pandas I saw in this house were of course some of the 2023-born cubs! I saw these guys in the morning of the first day I visited, and also the afternoon of the second day – I stopped by just on the chance they might be on show and they were. Actually they were more active when I visited in the afternoon. On the first day there were 3 cubs out, with 2 playing with each other/fighting for the spot in the tree, and the other eating. On the second day there were 3 out who looked the same ages as the ones from the first day, and a fourth cub which looked quite a bit younger than the others, and this one was more alone and sleeping in the corner. The cubs were enjoying their bamboo shoots on the second day and it was super cute seeing them relaxing back and chowing down^ I love seeing cubs this age outside, but of course I’m grateful to see them at all.
