The final panda to share about that I saw living in the No1 Giant Panda Villa is Ping Ping 平平 – who is maybe more popularly known as Re Gan Mian 热干面! He was born in March 2020 (very early in the year!) so was just over 4 years old when I visited and I saw him in this same yard on both days of my visit. He was born during the height of the pandemic and in relation to that was adopted by the Sichuan Aid Hubei medical team and given his ‘official’ name of Re Gan Mian, which translates as ‘hot dry noodles’. He has a twin brother, An An 安安/Dan Hong Gao 蛋烘糕, which means egg cake – the pair were named after local foods from Wuhan and Chengdu. An An is also listed as living in the No1 Villa however I didn’t see him when I was there. Ping Ping was outside everytime I saw him, and generally enjoying his bamboo right at the front of the yard – super cute! There are lots of pictures of his and his brothers younger years online, such a cute pair^

I never got to see Meng Yuan 梦圆 and Meng Xiang 梦想, the Zoo Berlin-born twins, when they were living in Berlin – I went in January 2020 and sadly they weren’t on show yet, then of course, world travel shut down and I never made it back before they moved to China. The twins moved to China in December 2023 so are still quite new to their life in China. They are living in No1 Villa, and are next door neighbours to Yuan Meng. Originally they were both sharing the space together at the same time, now they both still use the same yard, but alternate between who is outside, e.g. on the first day I visited the sign said Meng Xiang (although I didn’t actually see him, think I was too late in the morning) and on the next day the sign was Meng Yuan – who I did get to see! This must have been a fairly recent thing because all the posts I’d seen online had had the both of them together. Anyway, I was lucky enough to see Meng Yuan (or Pit, his German nickname) – it was very convenient that he is neighbours with Yuan Meng as it meant I could watch both at the same time, and he was as equally popular as Yuan Meng – there were even some German visitors there who had come especially to see him^ He was very active when I was there. When I got there he was already out and eating bamboo, then he would get up for a walk around different parts of the yard before settling back to bamboo again. When the keeper was around and trying to get Yuan Meng inside next door, Meng Yuan was very keen to catch her attention (even though it wasn’t his turn yet), for this reason I like the yard setup with the keeper path between yards – he waited at the door patiently until it was his turn not long after. The yard the twins share is a very nice one, it’s large and on the end of the row, so goes around the corner of the building also meaning a long path for viewing. And there are lots of different elevations and terrains around it too, there’s a nice rock formation in the middle and plenty of trees – it’s easy for a panda to be sitting there not too deep in the bushes and you might not even see it!

Of course a priority for my visits to Chengdu Panda Base was to see Yuan Meng 圆梦 again! I first saw him back in his birth country of France when I visited ZooParc de Beauval in 2022, and then I was lucky to see him again back in September 2023 here at the Chengdu Panda Base. At that time he had only recently gone on show to the public and was still a little apprehensive about his new surroundings, but I managed to see him and was so pleased. He’s certainly grown in confidence since then! On both mornings Yuan Meng was just about my first stop (after an hour on the first morning to stop to see Hua Hua) – on the first morning it was a bit later and he was right at the back of the yard and heading inside as the temperatures were rising. I got there earlier on the second morning and the timing was perfect as he was just coming outside as I got there. He had some enrichment and worked on getting some apple pieces out, which he spent a long time at, and then he settled down with a pile of bamboo. He was very popular, with many tour groups stopping at him for pictures. After he had finished his bamboo he climbed up onto a platform at the back of the yard for a sleep. A little while later the keeper was trying to call him inside because of the temperature and he was completely ignoring her! So happy to see him again for a third time, and hopefully I will get to see him again next time^

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^).