Panda Valley, Sichuan, China

4ram_vagabond 5:00 PM Oct 31, 2016

? Valley - The only Panda Holding option in China
On the outskirts of Chengdu City, Dujiangyan Panda Valley is a must visit if you wanna have a Photo opportunity or Volunteering program. We went there by public transport. Took the train from Chengdu Train Station to Qingshenshan Station. Although there is a Dujiangyan station, it is better to get off at the Qingshenshan station. From there we hired a taxi for 30 yuans to drop us at the Panda Valley.There are shuttle bus options too from the Qingshenshan station. The Panda Photo opportunity is at 10.30 am with a pre booking required for the same. It way too expensive -1800 CNY for about 20 seconds of close encounter with the Panda. But it's an individual prerogative. For me , I wanted to have a photo with the Panda and so I went there only for this. ( Although I have seen truckloads of Pandas at the Chengdu Panda Base ). You could expect a maximum of 10-15 ppl on a day given the huge cost for this activity. Note- No need to buy the entrance ticket if you are doing the Photo opportunity program. A little benefit of saving 70 CNY for the price of 1800 CNY.. lol You can easily spend half a day over there. The place is huge and the Pandas are mostly active in the morning. So start your trip as early as dawn - highly recommended to do this to avoid the tourists and catch the maximum action of the Pandas. If you find this post informative, please do hit a like and subscribe to me for getting continuous travel reviews from my side. Cheers Ram ? - Bon Voyage

4joestudwell 5:00 PM Aug 1, 2016

Panda base versus Panda Valley
In the last 2 days I took two kids, age 9 and 11, to both the Panda breeding centre on the north side of Chengdu (known locally as the 成都熊猫基地) and to Panda Valley, 10km south-west of DuJiangYan, which is in turn about 75 minutes north-west of Chengdu by car (called in Chinese 熊猫谷 －literally, Panda Valley). Some points worth noting: Chengdu breeding centre. 1. Chengdu breeding centre opens at 0730. Try to be there then. If in the panda breeding season (summer) head straight to the top of hill (by foot or electric cart) where there are two delivery centres -- 'sunshine' and 'moonlight'. They draw back the curtains of the nurseries at 0730 and you can see what has been born in the past couple of months. Around 15 pandas just now. You want to see this without too many people around. A good place to stay nearby with great outdoor and indoor pools for kids is the Panda Garden Crowne Plaza (5 mins away: 保利皇冠假日酒店). 2. Then tour the many panda enclosures heading back down the hill. As reviewers note, pandas are most active in the morning. But activity also depends on when keepers give them fresh bamboo/ open their cages. This seems to be after 0730... more like 0815. 3. As others have noted the hoards arrive around 9am. This means serious numbers of people. 4. If you want pandas that are active, you need young ones... up to about 2 years. Thereafter they adopt a fairly vegetative approach to life, eating and sleeping and, er, that's it. Dujiangyan Panda Valley 1. I paid a nice taxi driver Rmb600 to take us to Panda Valley and then to the famous irrigation scheme in Dujiangyan and then back to Chengdu. 7-8 hours' work; he would have done more. Mr Yan (颜师父 180-1067-7059, no English.） 2. I can confirm that if you want to do the panda volunteer and hugging/photo thing you have to book in advance. I asked the ticket people at Panda Valley and they said they no longer accept people just turning up and paying. Personally I had misgivings about doing this and didn't really intend to anyway. I am sure that people who are paying a lot for this opportunity have the best interests of the animals at heart. However everything I have read about pandas says they are particularly fearful of people whose scent they do not know. Plus someone who works at the breeding centre in town claimed to me there is clear stress among the animals in Dujiangyan. Plus the Dujiangyan facility is supposed to investigate re-introducing pandas to the wild and I struggle to understand how this can be done at the same time as introducing them to strangers every day. Anyhow, that is my two cents' worth. It is a difficult trade-off, since the centre needs to pay its bills and is perhaps relying on foreigners to do this. 3. You can just visit Panda Valley as a regular tourist. While it is much smaller than the Chengdu breeding centre, it is way quieter and all the animals we saw in the 3 panda 'houses' were young and active (very active in the case of two sibling cubs that may be the animals used for photo ops). My kids preferred it to the Chengdu breeding centre. The place is very well maintained and most of staff are friendly. The only downside was the animals were not let into their outdoor enclosures. I asked a keeper and he said it was too hot, which is what notices also say. This means you view them through large glass windows onto their indoor, air-conditioned enclosures. 4. You are not going to spend more than a couple of hours as a regular tourist at Panda Valley, so it makes sense to combine it with a trip to the historic irrigation works at Dujiangyan if taking a cab from Chengdu. (Other reviewers have mentioned another panda base -- Panda Ark -- in the Dujiangyan area. I did not ask about this.) I hope this info helps somebody. Seeing the pandas is certainly a great experience. The way they sit, fill up their mouths with bamboo leaves, and then use a paw to tear off the bunch of leaves had me mesmerised.