We visited the Panda Research Base on our second day in Chengdu. It was raining and overcast. It was the first time during our holidays that we had bad weather. Karin met us in the hotel and we went by taxi to the base.
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, or simply Chengdu Panda Base, is a non-profit research and breeding facility for giant pandas located at the Outer North Panda Avenue, in Chengdu, Sichuan.
The Panda Base was founded in 1987 and opened officially to the public on April 20, 2015. It started with 6 giant pandas that were rescued from the wild. By 2008, it had 124 panda births and the captive panda population has grown to 83.
Pandas are one of the main attractions for overseas visitors and locals and therefore we had to deal with large crowds wherever there was a panda in sight. Fortunately, there were lots of them and there was no lack of opportunity to observe and photograph these beautiful animals.
We visited the delivery room and nursery and observed several little cubs behaving like little babies. There was a queue to walk inside and file past the little baby pandas but the wait was only around 10 minutes.
We had also the opportunity to see the training of young animals in preparation for their reintroduction to the wild. This is done in a different place called Panda Valley some 50 km from Chengdu.
In addition to the giant pandas the site has also the red panda, but we only had a glimpse of one. Despite the bad weather and the crowds, we had a great morning walking around the base.
