For this trip I decided to make Chengdu my base for the week and take daytrips out to see pandas from there – and all making use of public transport rather than having a friend take me or booking a driver/guide. It’s all really definitely possible, but for me it definitely felt easy because I’m relatively experienced in travelling around in China. So lets chat where I heading to see pandas on this trip – I took these daytrips on 3 consecutive days:
A relaxing afternoon after a very hectic morning/half day of travel stress! My flight was originally scheduled for 2:20AM from Kuala Lumpur to Guangzhou, arriving at 6:40AM then I had a few hours layover until my flight to Chengdu at 9:30AM which got me in at 11:55AM. With almost 3 hours to enter China in Guangzhou and grab some breakfast, I should have been fine. But as we boarded the plane in Kuala Lumpur and settled in, the captain announced a 2 hour delay! They hoped we could maybe get an earlier slot (hence why we were boarded), but our departure slot was now 4:20AM =O That left me with under an hour to enter China (meaning go through passport control and get back through security again), won’t lie, that was a stressful thought! Because of that I didn’t get much/any sleep, and my seat neighbour didn’t help – he was a ‘manspreader’, not only putting his leg into my foot space (and his socked foot onto my bag?!?!) but also stretching up then leaning on my shoulder with his elbow?!?! So while he nodded off within about 5 minutes of them announcing the delay, I did not. We indeed took off 2 hours late and I think I managed 20 minutes of sleep here and there, but definitely not enough – at least I had brought some snacks.
I can finally tick off the list seeing all of the Panda bases in Sichuan Province, or more specifically in the Chengdu area! When I had the dream of seeing all the bases, I don’t think I intended to see them all on one trip, but that somehow managed to happen (although I’ve seen some on multiple previous trips too) – and I think it was completely worth it. When I was first looking up about seeing pandas in China, and even on more recent trips, I could never really find one resource that covered all of the bases – or even where they all were, especially somewhere that wasn’t a tour company. So hopefully this is something I can contribute to with this post summarising all 5 of the main giant panda bases in Sichuan Province that you can reach from Chengdu – covering the pros and cons of each, perhaps helping you figure out what might be the best option for what you want to see of pandas!
My first time to see the pandas at Ocean Park Hong Kong, and my first time in Hong Kong! I’m not sure why I didn’t really think about visiting before, but when I was booking this trip, getting back home directly from Chengdu was quite expensive with at least 2 stops, I looked at the different options to get home via Amsterdam/Paris, and Hong Kong came up – having never been, it was a no-brainer!
Ocean Park Hong Kong is a bit of a combination between a theme park and a zoo, they have both rides to go on, entertainment, and lots of animals to see. It’s split up into two different areas, the Waterfront and the Summit, and within each area there are different themed lands. I ended up staying at the Waterfront – to get to the Summit you can either take the cable car or the train as the two areas are separated by a mountain. I did try to go and take the train but it was closed when I wanted to go, and the queue for the cable car was over an hour, so I decided not to go. I was just particularly interested in seeing the pandas, so I didn’t go on any attractions, I stuck to seeing the pandas and most of the other animals living in the Waterfront area.
The pandas are located in the Waterfront, so easy to get to from the entrance of the park. This trip was in May 2024, at that time there were only 2 giant pandas at Ocean Park and they were staying in the Giant Panda Adventure building. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures building only had golden snub nosed monkeys in it when I visited, but now there are two brand new pandas also featuring there – the building has a lovely design with pandas all over the front, this did seem to confuse some visitors. Despite there being a staff member at the door saying ‘only monkeys, no pandas in here’, people were still leaving and asking her why they didn’t see any pandas in the building! And also on my visit, turns out Ying Ying was pregnant, so now there are two precious cubs to be seen as well – honestly what a few months Ocean Park had with their pandas^
There is of course also other panda themed things at Ocean Park – when you leave the Giant Panda Adventure area, you leave via a gift shop. They have many different panda souvenir options and I left with quite a few of them XD They had some deals on t-shirts, so I got a couple and am excited to wear them on future panda trips. I also picked up a magnet, my favourite holiday souvenir and there were plenty of soft-toys and kids games as well. I’ve seen now they have a huge range with the new pandas (both adults and cubs) so I’m excited to check these out next time. And there is of course the Club Panda Cafe, I didn’t eat here on my trip because I think at that time there didn’t look to be too many foods that looked like pandas, but now I think that’s changed with the new arrivals. Next time I’m having lunch there! And that will be soon – because I’m back in Hong Kong as this post goes live and I’ll be in Ocean Park seeing all 6 pandas tomorrow^
