Home to over 170 giant pandas, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (Chengdu Panda Base) is one of the top tourist attraction in Chengdu. This is where all the actions happen: research, breeding, conservation, and teaching the public.
Fun fact: most pandas you see in zoos around the world are bred here.
In this guide, I will be sharing everything you need to know about the Chengdu Panda Base so you can make the most out of your experience.
Duration: Recommend at least half a day.
Table of Contents
Opening Hours & Tickets
The base is open 7:30am–6pm throughout the year.
Ticket sales: 7:30am-5:00pm
- Full price: RMB 55/person
- Half price: RMB 27/person
Order your entrance ticket online through Klook to skip the line! Sign up to get $5 off your ticket!
With over 3.5 million annual visitors to the base, both domestically and internationally, there’s going to be a LOT of people visiting daily. The base is swarmed during the weekends and holidays.

If there’s one day to wake up early during a vacation, let it be this day. 7:30-9:30am is the best time to visit — fewer crowds, more active pandas. It’s a win-win situation.
Arrive any time after this, the pandas are mostly sleeping (still cute but… all you get are butts) or lazily chewing bamboo.
What can I see?
- Giant pandas: Over 170+ giant pandas! Each panda has a sign outside its enclosure introducing its name, birthday, family and personality. Isn’t that cute? The sign is in 4 different languages (Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean) which means you won’t be missing out on the fun!
Two sleeping baby pandas Panda signs
- Baby pandas: Born around July to September. Check out these precious babies at the Sunshine Nursery House and the Moonlight Nursery House. Inside the building, you will walk in a non-stopping line. Everyone gets a few seconds to be close. Take all the pictures you want, but remember to turn off your flashes.
- Red pandas: Also native to China. Despite its name, red pandas are not related to pandas. They are more raccoon-like and have a beautiful reddish-brown coat of fur. Red pandas have a huge enclosure space inside the base, so it’s quite difficult to spot them. Don’t give up, keep walking, and you will soon see why they are worth your efforts in searching.
- Black swans, peacocks
Note: As with all animals, keep quiet as they can be stressed out by loud noises. Don’t be those tourists that shout to the pandas to look in their directions. The eyes of baby pandas are especially sensitive to the lights, so remember to turn off your flashes before taking their adorable photos.

How to Get To the Panda Base
The panda base is further away from the city center compared to the rest of the major attractions, so keep that in mind when setting your alarm clock.
So how do you get to the giant panda research base?
By Metro
Take the metro line 3 and get off at the Panda Avenue stop — 熊猫大道站. Come out Exit A and ride either bus 198A or Panda Express line 3 to the panda base.
For those with WeChat and a Chinese phone number, you can go inside the yellow panda shop right outside the Panda Avenue station for the shuttle bus. There, you can purchase both the round-trip shuttle tickets and the entrance ticket for the panda base.
By Tourist Bus
Kuai Zhai Alley <—> Panda base
There are tourist buses departing every hour between these two attraction spots every day from 8:30am to 2:30pm. Return route 9:30am to 5:30pm.
By Taxi
The easiest method, but also the most expensive. It cost about 50RBM from downtown Chengdu or about 100RMB from the Shuangliu International Airport.

Inside the Chengdu Panda Base
Fun fact: The conservation base is about 247 acres. It’s only a bit smaller than the Bronx Zoo, the largest zoo in the US.
Before you start, you need a map.
Since buildings are all spread out and hidden, use the map so you don’t miss a section. Imagine coming all this way just to pass by the building with baby pandas!
You can either download the digital map on their official site here or get a physical copy at the tourist information center.
Tourist Information Office
What’s here? Everything you need to start.
There’s the visitor reception desk surrounded by stacks of physical maps. Storage lockers, bathrooms, and a rest area with a giant panda documentary. This place is also perfectly AC — great for hot summer days.
Unfortunately, because it’s on top of a staircase, this is the one building many people miss on their way in.
To get to the tourist information center, turn left after you pass the ticketing point and walk up the stairs.
If you want a more in-depth visit, hire a tour guide. The base has 11 tour guides that can speak a variety of languages.

Sightseeing Shuttle Bus
The base offers a hop on hop off shuttle service so you can hitch a ride between each area (it’s quite a walk). Tickets are very cheap at 10RMB per person. If you have problems walking long distances, visiting with elderly/children, or simply don’t want to walk, be sure to buy a ticket near the entrance of the park.
I highly recommend this after walking the entire park. By foot, it takes around 3 hours to walk. Trust me, it’s very tiring.
Now, if you are like me and decides “Hey! I can walk the entire base by foot”, then high five! When visiting in the morning, enjoy the tranquil and lush scenery as you walk from point to point. By the time you’re done, however, your feet probably want to kill you.
Hint: Comfort them by visiting one of the many foot massage places throughout the city.
Panda Base Shops
Are you the type to never leave a place without first buying a souvenir?
Good news! Souvenir shops are abundant throughout the base. Get yourself a panda hat, a couple of panda keychains and magnetics, puffy 3D panda stickers, commemorative souvenir medals, or anything you can find really. The prices are similar so it doesn’t matter which shop you buy from.
For panda postcards, head to the Panda Post Office.
Panda Base Eats
If you ever get hungry while touring the base (I know I did), there’s a few places you can eat at: the Panda Café, the Bamboo Restaurant, and the Rose Garden Restaurant. Their locations are all nicely labeled on the map.
For street snacks, head to the Swan Lake area. They sell delicious cheap sausages!
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