The final pandas I saw at the Shuangnan Gardens area of the Dujiangyan Base I actually didn’t know who they were at first because here you can’t access their sign at the front of the yard, you can only view at the side. Luckily I met a Singaporean fan (and friend of the fans I met in Singapore) at Le Le and she let me know the names of all the pandas I was missing – this mama and her cubs are Pan Wang 潘旺 and 2023-born twins, Chun Ye 春野 and Qiu Ye 秋野, who are (possibly) a female and male pair.

So happy to see Su Lin 苏琳 and her 2023-born twins again – last year I saw them at the Wolong Shenshuping Base and now there are living in Dujiangyan, what a great surprise^ This trio are living in the right-side yard at the Shuangnan Garden area and I saw a lot of them on my visit. I got there just when the keeper was putting out bamboo so it was the perfect time. I waited and soon Su Lin came out and the babies followed behind to get the bamboo. It was great to see a lot of Su Lin herself because I didn’t see much of her last year. The babies of course are adorable, they spent a lot of time eating and later I saw one climbing up and down trees, very reminiscent of seeing them last year when they were always up a tree! In mid-afternoon one of the cubs was wrestling with Su Lin (who I think wanted some alone time!), which was cute, and at the end of the day I popped in as I was on my way out and the trio was all napping after their bamboo feast. I had such a great time watching this family.

The cubs now of course also have names – they are both male and are called Zi Su 紫苏 and Zi Lin 紫林, and were born on the 4th and 5th of July 2023 at the Wolong Shenshuping Base.

The other pandas I saw in the Pan Pan Garden area were Yi Ran and her twins – I saw a lot of mums with their 2023-born babies on my last trip, but Yi Ran wasn’t one of them, so this is a new trio for me. Since my visit, CCRCGP have released the list of names for the 2023 and 2024-born babies, so these cubs are called Rui Xi 瑞喜 and Qiao Yi 乔怡. Yi Ran is now 12 years old and is an experienced mother, she first gave birth in 2017, then had cubs in 2019, 2021 and then these twins in 2023. These cubs are both males and were born in August 2023, making them around 1.5 years old. I stopped by in the morning and everyone was sleeping, then came back a few times, around lunchtime and closer to the end of the day and those second times saw both Yi Ran and one cub up and about. I got some lovely pictures of Yi Ran, but seeing a cub chasing a pigeon was an absolute highlight (no pigeons harmed)! Despite being in one of the first yards you come to in the base, it was always very quiet here, really only a few other people watching at any one time.