Pandas Pandas Pandas!!!!!!

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I think it’s ok to say that the biggest attraction in Chengdu are the pandas!!! So on my last day I woke up super duper early and by 6:30am I was at the bus stop across from my hostel to catch the early bus to the Panda breading and research center.

I did a lot of research about the center and learned that pandas are only active really early in the morning during their feeding time so one must get there right when they open. Just like the koalas in Australia, the pandas in China love to sleep and because they don’t get many nutrients from the bamboo they are really low in energy.

I was one of the first people in and headed towards the back of the park where most of the pandas are. While I was walking I hear somebody shout “Andrea”, I turned around and it was a couple from NYC that I met a couple of days ago.

Here they are in the bamboo forest!

We walked to the back of the park to find that some of it was closed, no signs, no nothing, only no pandas :(

We kept walking and the first panda we saw did not like to be seen, his back was towards us and he never turned around (we went back an hour later and he still had not moved!)

The next pandas were probably the cutest! It was a mom panda with twins. One of the twins was a cheeky little panda who spent most of the time bothering mom and his/her sibling! This chubby little panda was very active and many times we thought he was going to fall but he proved to have very good climbing skills!

The pandas were so cute that it very hard not to take pictures and not to spend an hour just watching the same panda!

They had a couple of panda cubs that were simply adorable!

I never knew there was such thing as a red panda but they have them here! I think it looks like a mix of racoon and a cat or something like that!

We spent almost 7 hours looking at pandas and we loved every second of it! I also really enjoyed the museum where they explained a little bit more about the history of pandas and the work that the research base is doing in order to help the pandas not to go extinct!

We read in length about the breeding process and it was actually amazing to see how they reproduce.

The very sad part, I thought, about pandas is that they are solitary animals. The mom and cub spend their first year together, the baby panda is learning all the skills to survive and then goes off on its own. The saddest part is that when a panda gets pregnant in captivity (not with a partner) the chances are super high that she will have twins, the siblings seem to love each other (the video recording of them playing really just melt your heart) but you know that soon they will each go their own way!

Another great thing about this breeding center is that they are putting pandas back in the wild!

I just absolutely loved loved loved my time here!

Aren’t these pandas just so cute?!?!

This is one of my favorite pictures... he/ she has ZERO worries, just having a great time eating bamboo!

After 10am this is all they do:

I loved it! Would have liked to stay day for an extra 7 hours!!!!

And here are some videos:

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!