Meet giant pandas at dawn in Chengdu

The giant panda lives in the wild only in the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, and Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, is the centre of the effort to save it. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, ten kilometres north of the city centre, was founded in 1987 with six pandas rescued from the wild. It now has more than two hundred, and it is the best place in the world to see them at close range.

What the experience is

The base is a park of 2.38 square kilometres, planted with bamboo and laid out as a series of large open-air enclosures, linked by paths that climb gently through the trees. There are adults, which live alone, groups of adolescents that wrestle and climb, and, in two nursery houses, the cubs born each year. A separate area holds red pandas, the small russet relatives that share the same forests.

Timing is everything. Pandas eat for much of the morning and sleep for most of the rest of the day, especially in warm weather. Cubs are fed between about eight and half past nine, and the adults are most active from opening until around ten. After that, visitors see mostly sleeping animals and other visitors. The right plan is to be at the gate when it opens, go first to the enclosures furthest from the entrance, and leave by late morning.

A museum near the south gate explains the biology of the animal and the history of its conservation. Cubs are usually born from July to September and are on view in the nurseries through the autumn.

When to go

Spring and autumn, when the weather is mild and the pandas spend more time outdoors. In high summer they are often kept in air-conditioned rooms. Weekends and Chinese public holidays are very crowded and best avoided.

Getting there

The base is about half an hour by car from central Chengdu, and can also be reached by metro and a short bus ride. Tickets are sold for timed entry and should be reserved in advance. Those who want a quieter visit can go on to the bases at Dujiangyan, about 70 kilometres away, or Wolong, in the mountains, where there are fewer people and a setting closer to the animals’ natural habitat.

Why OKYTO recommends it

Because it is the one thing that every visitor to Chengdu wants to do, and it is worth doing well. With an early start it takes a morning, leaving the afternoon for the teahouses and the food of the city. See OKYTO’s Chengdu guide, and for a stay in the hills afterwards, Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain, close to Dujiangyan.