I already wrote about the CCRCGP Dujiangyan Panda Base in my introduction post a little while back, and there I shared about my first trip to the base back in 2016 – I visited again in 2017 and got some great pictures from this trip too, I just had to put together a selection to share! On this trip I visited in an afternoon and the base was almost empty – there was a group doing the keeper experience (learning about pandas and their care, helping out with cleaning of the enclosures, and preparing the bamboo and other snacks), and a few visitors who were serious photographers, with camera lenses the length of my arm! But that really was it, we had the place mostly to ourselves, which was great to experience, and such a quiet and peaceful environment to watch the pandas from – which makes a big contrast to the Chengdu Panda Base.
Finally, a post about pandas in China! The Sichuan region is the place to be if it’s pandas you want to see, more specifically the city of Chengdu is very much regarded as the ‘home town’ for pandas. There are two centres for pandas, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, simply known as Chengdu Panda Base, and the China Conservation and Research Centre for Giant Pandas, or CCRCGP which is a little easier to roll off the tongue!
Each of the centres has several bases with pandas that you can choose to go and visit, with the most popular and easiest to get to being the main Chengdu Panda Base in the city of Chengdu, and both the CCRCGP and Chengdu bases in Dujiangyan which is a city just outside of Chengdu. Other CCRCGP bases are located in more mountainous regions (more of the natural habitat for pandas) such as Wolong or Ya’an which are also well-talked about when people are considering planning a trip to see pandas. There are also zoos where you can see pandas, like Chengdu Zoo where you can also see other animals. Outside of the Sichuan region you can of course see pandas in many other zoos, particularly in the main cities.
I’ve visited China every year since 2016, and hopefully will be able to continue visiting. I have been to Chengdu on every trip, so have been to the Chengdu Panda Base at least once on every trip. I’ve been to Dujiangyan twice, and on both occasions have been to the CCRCGP Dujiangyan Base but it’s been a couple of years since I’ve been there. I’ve not made it to Panda Valley (the Chengdu Dujiangyan Base) yet. There’s advantages to visiting both, which I’ll highlight in this post and then share another post about my most recent trip in November 2019.
