Giant Panda Breeding Research Base (Xiongmao Jidi), Sichuan, China

5chris d 5:00 PM Sep 7, 2021

Highly Recommended
Go early we arrived at 7:10am, start queuing until 7:30am when the gates open, foreigners need their passport, foreigners buy the ticket onsite just outside the gate (queue first) once in take the golf kart to the first stop 10(rmb) To see the pandas outside temp needs to be below 20° so try and choose a colder day if possible. The baby pandas are viable at 10:30am there was only one on the day we are there, born 1.5 months ago, in my opinion not worth waiting. On the day we went there are lot of pandas to be seen out eating, moving slowly and sleeping. I recommend it, allow 2-3 hours

5rndunn511 5:00 PM Oct 14, 2020

Chengdu 2020
My wife and I booked a three day private tour of the Chengdu area. we visited Giant Panda Reserve, Old Chengdu, the Leshan Buddha, and Emei mountain. The Giant Panda tour was amazing. Even though it was during the China Golden week we got into the park quickly and the Panda's were very active. Our guide Lisa was with China Travel Guide and she could not have been better. Lisa was very knowledgeable about the Panda's and could answer all of our silly questions. We then went to the narrow street and alley of old Chengdu. Again Lisa was amazing in her knowledge of the area and local customs. The foods she suggested was very good and us being from New Orleans we loved the spice and heat of the food. The next day we headed out to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha. It was a beautiful ride out to the town and sights. We were able to purchase ticket for the Boat ride to see the Buddha and we got in line. While in the line for the boats the crowd got very loud and rowdy. Lisa said that she was hearing that there were issues with the boats and the time between when the boats would be back for reloading. The crowd was really getting upset and it was very chaotic. It got to the point that we did not feel safe in the crowd and told Lisa we wanted to leave. Lisa was very professional and lead up out of the crowd. She took us to a point across the river from the Buddha and were able to see the Buddha and could photograph it. It wasn't ideal but at least we got to see it. We then headed up to Mt. Emei to our hotel and were were going to see Mt. Emei the next day. Well Murphy's Law hit again. The local authorities had closed the road to the town and we could not get to our hotel and they could not give us a time that the road would open. We were going to miss our dinner and China Opera reservations and didn't even know if we could get to the hotel. We decided to forego Mt. Emei and go back to Chengdu that night. I've said this to say that again, Lisa was very professional and said she would get us refunds and that she would put together a great day in Chengdu the next day which she did. Lisa scheduled two additional tours of a monastery and Poet DuFu's cottage. As a note we should not have booked this trip during a China national holiday but Lisa and China Travel Tours were awesome and amazing to handle these situations on the fly in a calm professional manner. I would definitely recommend the tour company and if you do book in Chengdu you should ask for Lisa.