For most of the visitors to Chengdu, Panda is definitely the highlight of the whole trip, It will far
exceed your expectation if you visit right time and right place.
In order to have a best panda experience, read the following tips.
Go early, arrive before 8am !
They are most active in the early morning before 10am,they sleep most of the time after 10am.
Panda are high altitude bears, adapt to low temperature( under 26 Celsius degree). So if you are
Visiting in Summer during June to Sep, make sure you can arrive before 8am,it takes about 30 min
From the down town by Taxi, Don’t use the public bus, it will waste you hours in the traffic jam.
Most of the bus tour arrive after 9am,go early you will beat them.
Which enclosure to go first ?
Once arrive there go directly to
Sunshine Nursery House for the baby/toddler pandas and No.11 enclosure for the teenages. The pandas
of the young age are very active,funny and playful in the morning, they all stay together doing all all sorts of activities,eating,running,climbing treess,fighting…
All pandas sleep indoors at night, and come out to meet people during the day if the temperature is not too warm.
The baby/toddler usually come out around 7:30, and they are most playful, you can’t expect to see
an 3 years old pandas showing you how they climbing a tree. While the teenage are all big eaters, you can see how funny they are eating bamboo during 8am-9:30am.
Most of the adult pandas come out after 8:30am,so if you are in a wrong place, you might wait one hour without seeing any panda.
Avoid Summer(July & Aug) if possible, if not, go as early as possible, otherwise it will be too warm and crowded. But rainy day is better than a sunny day in a Summer day. If you arrive after 9am it will be very little fun left.
Winter is a very nice time to see them, very quiet, and pandas are more active, and they spend more hours for activities. Chengdu seldom snow in Winter, actually they are very active in the snow.
I personally think December to Febuary are the best time to see them. It’s the time when the babies are learning to walk and climbing., so adorable they melt my heart.
If you would love to cuddle a panda, March and April are the best time, the baby pandas are in the best size and you can have one sitting on your lap.
Hire an experienced and responsible tour guide to show you around the Panda Sanctuary if you budget is ample.
Don’t want to hear any more complaint from visitors that pandas are all sleeping, it is because you wake up too late.