The best time of day to see a panda, hour by hour
Pandas are awake for about four hours a day. Getting the timing right matters more than which base you choose.
Gengda, Wenchuan · Sichuan
Wolong Shenshuping
Where the pandas live at 1,700 metres.
Shenshuping is the base that feels like the animal’s real home. The valley sits at 1,700 metres, the enclosures are cut into a slope, and the pandas are visibly more active in the mountain cold than they ever are on a Chengdu afternoon.
It is also the flagship site for the keeper-for-a-day programme, which is the closest a visitor can legally get to the work of looking after a panda. Allow a full day: the drive from Chengdu is two hours each way on a road that does not reward hurry.
What you will see
- Outer loop, home to pandas returned from overseas
- Panda kindergarten pavilions one and two
- Keeper-for-a-day programme, the flagship version
- Mountain scenery that justifies the drive on its own
Read before you go
All guides 
What the panda keeper programme actually involves
You will not hold a panda. You will break bamboo, wash shoots, and stand closer to a feeding animal than any ticket allows.
Doing the Chengdu base properly in one morning
A route that avoids the two worst bottlenecks, and why you should take the shuttle even though it feels lazy.