The not-for-profit Giant Panda Breeding Research Base (大熊猫繁育基地, Dàxióngmāo Fányù Jīdì), 13km north of urban Chengdu, is the world's leading research center of its kind. Pandas, endangered since the 1970s due to habitat loss, are now classified as "vulnerable," according to the WWF. This institution and others like it have been successful at getting these notoriously mate-picky creatures to breed.
The sweeping 2.4 sq km campus, sheltering 240 giant and 160 red pandas, has 18 enclosures spread across various zones, including four huge courtyards completed in 2022, as well as labs, museums and entertainment facilities. It takes three to five hours to see everything, and you can choose between a south-to-west or a west-to-south visiting route. The west gate is close to the new campus, which we prefer, and the south gate, the old one. Bus 409 from a stop near Exit B of Chengdu Junqu General Hospital metro station stops at the west gate. See the website for more transport details (panda.org.cn/en).
The New York Times ran an investigative piece in October 2024 accusing China's panda reserves of panda-breeding malpractices, with allegations of mistreatment and aggressive artificial breeding, and they claimed more pandas are being sold to zoos around the world than released into the wild. At the time of editing, the reserves had not yet responded to these claims, but the accusations are based on official documents, photos and interviews. So watch this space.
