Chengdu, Dujiangyan or Wolong: choosing your base
Six places keep giant pandas in China. They are not interchangeable, and the right one depends on how much time and patience you have.
8 min read 2026-10-08
Travel guides
Read before
you book.
Practical, verifiable detail about seeing pandas in China: when to go, what a ticket actually covers, and which parts of a keeper morning are worth paying for.
Before you go
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.
Read · 6 min readThe full index
Follow your curiosity.
Every guide is written from visits we have made ourselves, and revised when ticket rules or opening hours change.
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.
7 min read 2026-10-02
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.
5 min read 2026-09-24
Holding a panda is not a thing you can buy
A short, unsentimental guide to what is allowed at Chinese panda facilities, and how to spot a programme that is overselling.
5 min read 2026-09-15
Why some pandas are brown
Qinling pandas split from their Sichuan cousins long ago. One of them, Qizai, is the only brown giant panda in captivity.
6 min read 2026-09-02