VISIT THE GIANT PANDAS IN CHENGDU, CHINA

If you’re traveling in China then a visit to see the giant pandas in Chengdu has to be on your list. It’s an incredible experience for all the family, and if you’re lucky you’ll get to see new-born and baby pandas as well as big cuddly pandas roaming around.  You can find them at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and its super easy to get to from your accommodation in Chengdu.

This post will tell you how to get to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, how to get around and what you’ll see there. Another fabulous day-trip from Chengdu is to visit the Leshan Buddha. It’s just a two hour busride from Chengdu. I wish we’d done it…now we have to go back.

We used trains to get around China and traveled on a 10 hour train from Hangzhou to Chengdu and stayed at the Hello Chengdu Hostel – you can read our review here. It is a fabulous hostel with lovely grounds, good sized rooms with bathrooms and amenities, a restaurant and lots of lovely staff and guests.

 

Before you travel to China

You need to get a VPN when you travel to China – this will make are you can reach all the online sites that are censored by routing your wifi through a server is a different country. Amazing huh? A VPN will also protect your data and let you watch shows from home. Read why you need a VPN here and get three months for free when you use Express VPN here – I’ve used them for years and love them.

Around Chengdu

Chengdu is one of our favourite places to visit in China with kids. It’s such a fab city to explore and the food is so spicy and and very distinct. The Sichuan style of cooking originated here  and there are so many spicy foods to try. This Chengdu Evening Food and (unlimited) beer and soda tour gets five stars and will be on our list for next time!

I really wish we had visited the Leshan Buddha while we were in Chengdu. Checking out this full day trip to the Leshan Buddha on Klook that includes all transport, a ferry ride around the Buddha, lunch and a stop at Emeishan.

Getting to the Giant Panda Research Base

The Giant Panda Research Base is 10km from the city of Chengdu but can take a while to get there due to traffic Plan to leave early. We booked our trip out to see the pandas with the desk at the hostel. We did this so we had reliable transport to and from the park as the centre is on a busy freeway. You can also book a day trip through Klook

A minivan picked us up and returned us to the hostel after a three hour stay at the park. It was super easy.

We found it easy enough to walk around by ourselves following the guide map, and that way we could go where there were no other tourists at the time and have spots all to ourselves. However, this Chengdu full day tour using public transport and visiting both the giant pandas Dufu’s Thatched Cottage and Wuhou Temple is highly recommended.

You can organise your own transport – it’s very close to the city and if you take your own car you can easily do it yourself and then stay at the panda centre for as long as you like. I would suggest arranging for pickup at an agreed time though, as it can be difficult to flag a taxi down on the main road.

When to go

As there is a panda breeding program here, the time of year you arrive determines the size of the baby pandas you see. When we were there in July there was a bunch of little newborn panda babies in humidi-cribs in the maternity ward. Oh it was so amazing!

There was a queue to walk inside and file past the little baby pandas but the wait was only around 10 minutes. And we got to see the panda twins that had been born only a couple of weeks earlier which was so exciting. They are so cute and it’s amazing we get to see them like this, being cared for by vets. It’s all very professional and well organised.

 

A little later in the year, around September, lots of cuddly toddlers –  like the ones you see in the famous videos  – can be found there…but they are not always in the public viewing areas.

But regardless, whenever you go within the Chengdu Giant Panda Base you will see giant pandas lolling around, trying to climb, eating, falling over and just living a great life!

The park:

I reckon the Chinese manage their attractions really well. The park is well pathed and sign-posted in English. You can wander around the paths and spot giant pandas in the forest or playing, snoozing or laying on their bamboo platforms.

They are so much fun to watch, you can literally spend hours, spellbound by them.

There are other displays too like small red pandas and golden monkeys, but the pandas are the main event! Oh and on your way out there will be vendors with all kinds of panda gear for you to buy if you can’t find what you want at the tourist shops inside.

WHERE: Giant Panda Research Base, only 10km from Chengu centre

COST: RMB 58 per person (arond $11 AUD)

OPENING HOURS: 7.30am – 6pm year round.

ACCESSIBLE: Yes! Pathways, signposts in English and clean toilets. There is a cafe at the entrance.