Visiting the Chengdu Panda Research Base

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I’ve always been fascinated with giant pandas. They are such weirdly wonderful, bumbling balls of chaos. They look like bears mixed with giant raccoons but with the nature of an overexcited Labrador who suddenly gets narcolepsy. Such fascinating creatures, and most people feel just as excited about seeing them as I was at the Chengdu panda research base.

I lived in China for 2 years, and on my first week without work, I knew exactly where I was going. I was heading West to Chengdu in search of Pandas. It was my only goal of the week. I adore Chengdu, such an amazing (but huge) city. References to pandas were everywhere. I imagine it’s one of the biggest reasons tourists pick this area to visit. Read more about my first time in China and the cultural comfort zone I was well and truly out of.

Where to stay in Chengdu

I love hostels in China, they are generally just as good as hotels. I even found some hostels that were nicer than hotels, and as an often solo traveler it was a great way to meet people. In Chengdu I wanted somewhere that was easy to access the tourist attractions, but also quiet and in a good area. I chose to stay at Chengdu Mix Hostel near the Wenshu Monastery.

The hostel had a relaxed feel, helpful staff and a great restaurant. There was a lovely outdoor area to chill in, and the common areas are fantastic to meet people. I joined in a dumpling making party one night which was so much fun…and delicious. The rooms were nice enough, and on the top level there was kind of an outdoor area set up like a garden even though it was covered. That’s where there were washrooms and wash basins. The hostel had some cute little cats running around too. I like the place so much I stayed at Mix Hostel every time I went to Chengdu, which ended up being four times.

Getting to the Chengdu panda base

Being that Chengdu is a sprawling city (despite the small town feel of the hostel area where I stayed), you need to plan your route to the Chengdu Panda Research Base. If you want to go the easy way you could take a taxi. There are also tourist buses going there. Because I was trying to do my trip on a budget I took a public bus. I had to change halfway through the journey but I was able to get there pretty easily. Here’s more info on how to get there.

I’ve been to the Panda Base a couple times now and one piece of advice I will give you for the journey is take plenty of water. If you’re there in the summer it will be hot and even the air conditioned buses get hot when they’re full. In China a bus is the cheapest way to get around, as I did to get anywhere in Chengdu. But it might not be the most comfortable. It can get hot and busy as Chengdu is one of the busiest cities in China with between 10 and 14 million people (give or take a million).

Chengdu Panda base travel tip: go early

I left earlier in the morning since I was told that the pandas are most active in the morning. You have to admit that when you see giant pandas in nature shows they’re always either sleeping or just sitting eating. I wanted to make sure I got there for any activity I could. Plus, when you’re going to see Pandas, you’re probably going to be too excited to sleep anyway.

An hour and a half by bus, I made sure I was there for just after opening time at the research base. It opens at 7:30am so get yourself to bed early the night before. The park gets busy but I never had an issue with crowds when I got there earlier in the day, it was more just as I was leaving that I noticed way more people.

As of the time of writing, it is 55 RMB entry to the park which is about $8 USD/$10 CAD.

The museum and gardens

In the research base a lot of the paths are lined with bamboo. Now I’m not a giant panda but that’s got to be like us walking down a path with cookies piled 10 feet high. Doesn’t that sound awesome?! The whole park is kitted out very nicely with greenery everywhere, lakes and ponds and beautiful gardens.

The natural and simulated environment in the park is really well done. They seem to take great pride in distancing themselves from comparisons to zoos, which I’ll be honest are not a great experience in China. I went to the Beijing zoo once to see pandas. They live like kings but all the other animals are so sad and it’s kind of heartbreaking. Not this place though.

One of the first places I got to was the museum giving more information about the giant pandas, the areas they are from in the wild, and the efforts of the research base here in Chengdu. I got a couple of books from the gift shop too that also talk about the park.

The Giant Pandas

Now to the whole reason you came here. Pictures of pandas and stories about how amazingly cute they are.

Feel better? Good, now I’ve got your attention let me tell you a bit about the giant pandas here. The research base originally started out with only 6 giant pandas. They’ve come a long way since then, and have been successful in breeding the animals and now have over 150 giant pandas. The base is also responsible for partnerships with zoos around the world as they loan their pandas out. I was lucky enough to see the 2 giant pandas in Toronto Zoo a couple years ago (they are now in Calgary).

Following the paths, I visiting all the pandas I could. I was bouncing off the walls with excitement when I saw my first giant panda. It had been such a huge dream of mine to see one in real life that I could barely contain myself. They were every bit as cute, lovable and lazy as I thought they would be. I was in love.

Fun fact: in Mandarin the word for Giant Panda is dà xióng māo which when literally translated means big bear cat. This is both a highly accurate description of how they look, and incredibly adorable.

Feeding time Chengdu panda style

The great thing about getting to the park early is that they were still getting fed their ‘breakfast’. By that I mean a boat load of bamboo dropped into their enclosure. An enclosure that I might add, is already filled and surrounded by bamboo. But why go searching for it when people will bring it to you right?

You’ve never seen an animal put in such little effort to eat. Rolling around with paws outstretched just hoping to take hold of some bamboo. If there isn’t any, the obvious look of exasperation on their faces as they realize they’re going to have to move is comical.

Play time for the giant pandas

The enclosures have lots of toys and things to encourage the pandas to play and socialize. There are tyre swings, wooden bridges and climbing frames, and soccer balls. You haven’t lived until you’ve watched a 250 lb panda try to fit a bucket on its head then topple over because he doesn’t know why it went dark.

Every time I thought I could leave the pandas and go on with my day, I would have to say “just one more minute”. The different enclosures were for pandas of different age ranges. Varying from the small infants, to “toddlers”, “teenagers” and adults, we worked our way around the park. For a hefty sum you can have your picture taken with a giant panda, but that was a bit too rich for my blood. It was about 2000 RMB I believe, which when you think about the entry to the park was only 55 RMB you can see why I didn’t do this. If I was there now, and not traveling on a budget, I might consider it though.

The keepers at the Chengdu Panda Research Base

At various points throughout my visits I saw the keepers going into the enclosures with the giant pandas. They went in to feed them and arrange the food. They went in to administer medicines and perform smaller tests. At the “toddler” enclosure we saw the keeper come in to grab a panda, carrying him off like a baby, only to return with the confused animal and pick up the next one.

With the younger pandas it looks like they were constantly weighing them to make sure they were growing as they should be. Fun to watch the keepers interact with the pandas though, who mostly didn’t care as long as they got something out of it (food or attention).

The panda nursery

You think fully grown or juvenile pandas are cute. Wait until you see the infant ones. They are round little balls of fluff with the coordination of a drunk baby. We watched them in the nursery where they have (almost) constant supervision. They are in little playpens together while a researcher sits behind them checking vitals occasionally, weighing them and doing researcher-like things.

My favorite moment was as we could see one mischievous little panda cub climbing the playpen. The researcher was oblivious to this adorable little bundle who had figured out that because he couldn’t climb up the bars without slipping, that he would use the wall the playpen was pushed up against. We excitedly watched him scale up onto the window ledge and bumble along in a bid for freedom. The researcher turned around just in time before he tumbled off the window ledge and he was back in his playpen again. Confused and irritated, taking it out on his cub-companion. You’ve never seen anything cuter in your life.

Other animals at the panda base

There are other animals in the research base besides giant pandas. Although people usually rush past them to get to the main reason they came to the park, and when they’re done with the giant pandas the other animals are not as interesting. It’s kind of like when you go to the zoo and everyone’s after the tigers and polar bears so they walk past the poor warthogs (I always make a point of visiting them so they don’t feel left out).

But there are beautiful birds in the park including swans and peacocks. Some of them roam the park and you can catch them in with the pandas, or walking the trails (or in the case of the swans, swimming on the lake).

Then there’s the red pandas. If you’ve never seen one, they’re much smaller and kind of more raccoon like. As I mentioned earlier, the giant pandas in Mandarin are dà xióng māo (big bear cat), the red pandas are called xiǎo xióng māo (small bear cat). They actually do look more cat like than the giant panda.

How do you get a red panda out of a tree?

Not with a big stick, that’s for sure. After the fun of the nursery I didn’t think we’d get any more entertainment on that level. I was wrong. Watching three grown men try to coax a red panda out of a tree with a long stick was hilarious. It all started as the animal realized that his friends had all been taken one by one for their shots, a vaccination of some kind maybe. The recognition in his face that he was next was plain to see. So he climbed up the tree, higher and higher.

One of the researchers attempted to climb up the tree after this little guy. But the red panda took off into the next tree and all I caught was the muffled sounds of what I’m pretty sure were “that little s&#t” in Mandarin. The researcher gave up and went back to the stick method. Eventually they got close enough to nab the troublemaker and after a quick shot he was back in his tree.

Conservation in China

China doesn’t have the best record for animal rights, or even sometimes human rights for that matter. But I spent a long time in the country, and I can say that the work they are doing at the Chengdu panda research base is incredible. They are teaching people about the animals, the environment and the realities of what will happen if they don’t help the giant pandas.

Read more “Lost in translation” signs from my trip to China here

From 6 giant pandas when the center first began operating not even 40 years ago, they’ve helped this iconic animal more than anyone could have imagined.

The giant panda has long been the symbol for endangered animals, the next one to become extinct. But in 2016 they were reclassified from endangered to vulnerable which is a huge step, in large part thanks to the efforts of the Chengdu Panda Research Base. If you’re in China, make sure to visit Chengdu.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post please leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Have you been to the Chengdu panda base? What other conservation efforts have you witnessed on your travels?