PANDA-MONIUM! CLOSE ENCOUNTERS IN CHENGDU AND WOLONG
If you are going to China, and you’re as smitten as we are by adorable giant pandas, you must go to Chengdu in the western Sichuan province.
With its dense bamboo forests, this cool, wet, mountainous region is home to forty of China’s sixty-seven panda reserves. There are only about 2,000 giant pandas in the world—about 1,800 in the wild, and forty-five in zoos outside China (only four are in the U.S. as of June 2025, with two each in D.C. and San Diego). In and around Chengdu, you have a chance to see some 200 pandas at four major bases!
On our first visit to China in 2016, my adult daughter Regan and I made a point of going to Chengdu.
We had such fun being panda keepers at the Dujiangyan Panda Base, about ninety minutes from Chengdu. We cleaned panda pens (yep, including poop), and got to feed three-year-old Wu Wen panda cakes (made by panda keepers) and bamboo through the bars of her cage (we were not allowed to touch her or the cage.) Some visitors paid handsomely to sit next to pandas for quick pictures.
Today’s panda keepers do not get to be close to the bears or feed them; posing with pandas ended in 2019.
But you can still scrub panda pens, clean bamboo and make panda cakes as a volunteer or in the loving care programs at Dujiangyan, Wolong and Bifengxia Panda Bases (or be a red panda keeper!).
Over two days in May 2025, we went to the Chengdu and Wolong bases and enjoyed darling youngsters at both. (We decided not to repeat as panda keepers.)
In 2016, giant pandas were downgraded from “Endangered” to “Vulnerable.” But they are still at risk, from lost habitat, poachers and climate change. Breeding is a challenge as females can conceive only a few days each year.
The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, just thirty minutes from the city center, has the largest collection in the world with more than 100 giant pandas (plus red pandas). In any given year, 10-20 itsy bitsy babies are born in late summer and displayed in the nursery through September.
The Wolong Shenshuping Panda Base is about two hours from Chengdu, located in the original habitat of giant pandas, within a huge panda reserve. Some visitors stay overnight at nearby Gengda town in order to hike Dengsheng Gorge, home to more than 100 wild pandas, golden monkeys and snow leopards—all extremely reclusive. (It is rare for even veteran panda researchers to ever spot the bears in the wild.)
We were giddy with delight watching some fifteen adorable fuzzy panda cubs trotting, climbing, falling, somersaulting, wrestling, perched in trees, hanging with mom, learning to eat bamboo, interacting with panda keepers, and loafing. Pandas have poor vision, so their sense of perspective, along with their growing bodies, result in entertaining antics.
The star in Chengdu is Hua Hua, an unusual midget panda; the star at Wolong is Fu Bao, the first giant panda born in South Korea. “Princess Fu,” a beloved media sensation, was transferred to Wolong in 2024, when she was four.
That was per China’s panda arrangements: bears are loaned out for about $1 million a year for ten years. Any babies born overseas are to be brought to China by the age of four.
Fu Bao had recently resumed her public appearances when we visited, and we were amazed by her throngs of fans.
After about three hours at each base, we reluctantly left when the bear activity waned and most pandas went in their indoor pens to cool down.
Soon after our return to the U.S., we were delighted to learn a cub had been born in Wolong on June 21!
KEY TIPS:
—During the summer, pandas are most active in the cool morning. Arrive as close to opening time as you can (while also beating the uninformed crowds), or come in the late afternoon.
—Chengdu Park is humongous and best with a guide. To catch the youngsters, take the shuttle to the far end where the sub-adult enclosures feature pandas one to five years old. (Opens at 7:30 a.m.; 8 a.m. from November-February.)
—Wolong is at 5,600 feet so prepare for a cold morning. It’s compact enough to do by yourself. (Opens at 9 a.m.)
