I only saw one panda in the No5 Villa and that was Bao Mei 宝妹 – not to be mistaken with the Bao Mei born (and at the time of my visit) and living at Pairi Daiza, but one born in China. Funnily enough she was also born in 2019 and also has a twin brother (Bao Ge 宝哥, while the Belgian brother is Bao Di). Having lived in the kindergarten in that year, it’s very possible that her and her twin were cubs that I saw on my 2019 trip, so it’s special to think I may be seeing her again. What is special about Bao Mei is that she is the cub of a born-overseas panda – her mother is Po, also known as A Bao 阿宝 or Bao Lan 宝兰, who was born at Zoo Atlanta in 2010 and travelled to China in 2014. Bao Mei and Bao Ge were her first pregnancy, and are the heaviest twins born on record (both being over 200g at birth). One thing that was difficult in finding information is that a male panda born in Zoo Madrid in 2010 also received the same Po/A Bao naming, and actually female Po was originally thought to be male. Anyway, Bao Mei was incredibly cute when I saw her, initially there were almost no people at her yard and I was alone while seeing her sitting high on platforms above the ground. She then got up and walked along to a new spot with a fresh pile of bamboo and at that time more people could see her and she had quite a crowd watching her. As a youngster, her and twin Bao Ge were in a trio with Jin Bao 金宝 (who I later saw, photos to come!) and they were known as ‘the three treasures’. In December 2023 she was moved on to her current solo-yard where her neighbours are Hua Hua and He Ye. She is definitely a particularly cute panda, and very photogenic, I especially like the first photo of her here:

Moving from the No1 Villa to the No2 Villa, I didn’t see any pandas outside in this house when I went, but luckily indoor viewing was open to see 4 of the 2022-born cubs who are living together – Ai Si 艾斯 and Ai Lun 艾琳, who are twins of Ai Li, 艾莉 and Chao Chao 吵吵 and Nao Nao 闹闹, who are twins of Er Qiao 二巧. These four were almost 2 years old when I saw them, honestly such a cute age to see pandas because they’re so playful and fun and have great interactions with each other. I went in and saw these guys on both days and at different times, each visit there were always one or two sleeping and the others were eating or interacting with each other. They have a good selection of climbing frames for climbing and sleeping on and they really were making good use of them all. The bamboo shoots were mostly done by the time of my visits, that would have been very cute to see as no doubt they would have all been tussling for the best ones! They were a very popular quartet and there was always a crowd viewing them – the indoor viewing is a bit tricky because the glass is quite reflective, I found it tricky to get the optimal spot where there was no reflection but also good for angles of the pandas.

Online it says that Ai Si is becoming a bit of a star at the base, there’s lots of baby pictures of him online and I have to say he looks extra cute^ I also read that Nao Nao has quite a distinctive look, with tear-drop eye patches that are wider at the top and narrow at the bottom, and her nose is also flatter than typical – unfortunately I didn’t get a clear picture of all 4 cubs’ faces so I can’t really tell which panda is which, but perhaps an expert panda identifier can point this out! Perhaps the panda alone in the below pictures looks like it has a slightly flatter nose, so perhaps this is Nao Nao?!

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!