The Starry Sky Pavilion is one of the open houses in the Panda Forest Area, and has a few returned pandas who were born in Zoo Atlanta, so it was very appropriate that I wore my Zoo Atlanta panda t-shirt to visit^ The Starry Sky Pavilion has 3 indoor enclosures and 6 outdoor yards for pandas – I saw pandas in all of the inside spaces on my visit. The largest of the 3 is in the middle, with the outer ones being slightly smaller but equal in size and these were where individual pandas were housed. On the first day of my visit I saw Xi Lan 喜兰 in the first enclosure, but on the second day this was Da Mao 大毛, a different panda, and on both days I saw Mei Lan 美兰 in the third enclosure. So there were some pandas living in this pavilion that I didn’t see (there are 10 pandas listed as living in this pavilion). I found taking pictures quite tricky in this pavilion because of the light, it’s a very bright house with windows in the walls and also the roof is mostly glass (don’t remember if it was clear or frosted, but lots of light coming through), paired with the reflections on the glass of the enclosures – it was a tricky one, so some of the lighting might differ from picture to picture.

The second area of the expansion is the Panda Forest Area. I didn’t get to this area back on my September 2023 visit because it was marked as closed – now 8 months later the area has started to open up with 2 of the 5 pavilions now open to the public (as I write this at the start of 2025, the app still only lists these 2 houses as open). Both the Starry Sky Pavilion and the Star Giant Panda Nursery House are open, while the Starlight, Star Cloud and Star Rain Pavilions are still closed (they do look complete from the outside, but maybe work inside still ongoing or there aren’t pandas living there yet). I really liked visiting the open pavilions in this area, I think they’re an absolute highlight of the expansion so highly recommend visiting them. They have a bit of everything, covering all ages of giant pandas and a really nice mix of enclosure styles. I only saw pandas inside on my visit, but the outside yards really look very nice here and I’m looking forward to seeing pandas in them one day!

The Starry Sky Giant Panda Pavilion has a very nice entrance to it with a big education section covering lots of information on their phylogeny, history, biology, geography, comparing wild and captive knowledge, and also on international panda loans. This section was really nicely done. The Star Giant Panda Nursery House has shops and a coffee counter – the shops here are much more spacious than the ones in the original section of the base, and have more stock than the one in the Panoramic Restaurant section of the Panda Reception Hall, so I’d recommend stopping here if you can and want a more relaxed look at the panda merch. There is also a panda bookstore here, it was closed when I was there but it did look pretty good with a range of books I would have loved to have seen!

Here is the final of the 4 pavilions in the Panda Reception Hall, the Rising Sun Pavilion. Same setup as the others, and here I saw the same three pandas on both days of my visit – one solo and one pair. The app lists 7 pandas as living here, so there were 4 that I didn’t see (Er Qiao 儿巧, 13 years old; You You 友友, 3 years old; Jiu Jiu 久久, 3 years old; Cheng Jiu 成就, 10 years old) – now if the app current info is as it was on my visit (potential for change, but the 3 I did see are listed in this pavilion), that means I missed on seeing the You You and Jiu Jiu who were the twins born at Zoo Madrid in 2021. It’s quite likely they weren’t on show during my visit as they had only relatively recently returned from Spain so were maybe still adjusting to the different environment, but I’m so hoping I can see them next time because they have been a highlight of my European zoo visits, you can see photos *here*.

Now is the third of the 4 pavilions in the Panda Reception Hall, the Cloud Sun Pavilion. Same setup as the other, and here I saw only two pandas and saw both on both days of my visit. The app lists 5 pandas as living here, so there were 3 that I didn’t see (Bao Ge 宝哥, 5 years old; Ke Dou 科豆, 6 years old; Yun Wen 韵文, 6 years old). This pavilion is at quite a central point so I passed by it several times on both days and the pandas were always out when I went past.