Inside the black-and-white panda-monium in Chengdu, China’s panda capital

By Lee Hae-rin The moment the plane touches down in Chengdu, it is immediately clear this is China’s panda capital. Giant black-and-white sculptures line the arrival hall, cartoon pandas beam from wayfinding signs and duty-free displays, and airport cafes serve lattes topped with foamy panda faces. The most beloved animal in the country is everywhere, from street murals to subway advertisements, and it sits at the centre of the city’s cultural identity and tourism boom. Giant pandas are only found in China. The total number of live giant pandas is believed to be about 1,800, and the cool and humid bamboo forests in the mountains of Sichuan province, of which Chengdu is the capital, are home to 72 per cent of them. The city has transformed this ecological trait into a powerful tourism brand. At the heart of its “panda city” image is the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. “This base covers about 3,570 acres [1,445 hectares],” says panda tour guide Zhao Liping. “If you like to visit the whole base, it’s going to take you around seven hours.” She explains that some 270 giant pandas live at the base, though a typical visit reveals around 140. All about the research base Opened in 1987 and expanded in 2023, the Chengdu base is now a government-backed, non-profit conservation centre that features panda breeding programmes, veterinary and genetics research, pre-release training, and a dedicated panda museum. It positions tourism as a way to fund protection and educate millions of visitors each year rather than simply displaying animals for entertainment. The base was born out of crisis. In the 1980s, mass bamboo flowering – which caused large-scale die-offs of the plant – in the Minshan and Qionglai mountain ranges left wild pandas starving. “We found more than 100 carcasses of giant pandas in the mountains with their stomachs empty, which means they were starved to death,” Zhao says. “So the government built this place to protect pandas.” Today, alongside other panda bases in the region, Chengdu’s facilities help safeguard a wild population while accommodating millions of visitors a year who come specifically for panda tourism. The base is designed to mimic the pandas’ natural habitat, full of mountainous forests. Visitors traverse boardwalks shaded by bamboo and trees. Each panda has access to hundreds or even thousands of square metres, with family groups and high-profile “stars” enjoying even larger spaces. “If the pandas live in one enclosure for a very long time, they’re going to feel very bored,” Zhao says, adding that they are moved to a different enclosure every four to five months to keep them mentally healthy. “If they move to a new place, they’re going to feel fresh.” Zhao goes on to explain the animals’ famously leisurely lifestyle. “People think they eat and sleep every day. It sounds very lazy. Actually, they have their own reasons, because their food, bamboo, is very low and poor in nutrition [for pandas]. So every day, for an adult panda, they need to eat about 20 to 40 kilograms [44lbs-88lbs] of bamboo. Their digestion is so inefficient that panda droppings are still largely composed of bamboo fibre, which the base recycles. “Bamboo fibre is the perfect material to make paper and tissue. So we recycle these panda droppings,” Zhao says. The pandas made famous in Chengdu and overseas Hua Hua is one of the base’s biggest stars these days and visitors flock to see her from all over China. Born in 2020, she has been named the honorary director for Chengdu’s Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau and served as a “spokes-panda” for events like the Chengdu Summer Universiade. Zhao says Hua Hua’s special appeal lies partly in her unusual proportions. “Other adult pandas, if they stood up, can reach 1.8 metres,” she says. “But Hua Hua can only reach 1.5 metres. So she’s shorter and fatter than other pandas. She’s like a triangular rice ball. That’s why she’s so popular.” Hua Hua’s popularity translates into long queues of about two hours at her enclosure and a wave of merchandise across gift shops around the base and the city. Similar fandom dynamics followed Fu Bao, the panda born at South Korea’s Everland in 2020 and repatriated to Sichuan in 2024. She was sent to another research base in the province, and her return encouraged many Korean fans to travel to China to see her in person. China currently has several dozen giant pandas living abroad on long-term loan agreements, with around 60 to 70 pandas living in foreign zoos at any given time as part of breeding and research partnerships. South Korea received its first pandas from China in 1994: a pair named Ming Ming and Li Li to mark the second anniversary of bilateral ties between the two countries. In 2016, China loaned a new pair, Ai Bao and Le Bao, to Everland under a 15-year agreement, leading to the birth of Fu Bao in 2020. Fu Bao was the first giant panda born in South Korea, triggering a fandom among Koreans. The power of panda tourism Panda tourism is big business. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and its related Panda Valley site attracted about 11.9 million visitors in 2023 alone, generating some US$64 million in ticket revenue. During this year’s five-day Labour Day holiday in China in May, the base drew roughly 264,000 visitors, while Chengdu as a whole drew nearly 20 million tourists with panda-themed hotel bookings, more than tripling year-on-year over the same period. Chengdu’s embrace of its black-and-white ambassador runs through its urban fabric. Home to more than 21 million people, the city is the only major metropolis where large swathes of municipal territory overlap with designated wild panda habitat. Municipal campaigns use panda imagery to promote everything from green transport to cultural festivals, and tourism centred on pandas. In recent years, Chengdu has climbed into the top tier of Chinese city-break destinations. It often ranks just behind megahubs like Beijing and Shanghai, as its panda bases, panda-themed city branding and relaxed food-and-cafe culture have turned it into a preferred getaway for both domestic and international travellers. Local experts now estimate that panda-themed tourism and merchandise in Sichuan constitute a business worth 1 billion yuan (US$148 million) annually. Meanwhile, Hilton’s new partnership with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding offers an upscale panda experience with a crowd-free, early-morning programme through the quieter East Gate. Hilton Honors members who win one of the three auctioned packages get fast-track entry, seats on a dedicated tram, a professional naturalist guide and a coffee break, with the route designed to maximise time in front of active pandas and end at the panda museum for a more reflective, science-based experience. For Zhao and many Chinese people, the animal at the centre of this ecosystem is more than a mascot. “In history, Chinese people treasured them,” she says, noting that as early as the Tang dynasty (618-907), pandas were sent to Japan as national gifts. “Now … they’re kind of a peaceful ambassador of China. We transfer them all over the world; they build a bond between China and other countries.” Read the full story at The Korea Times

Inside the black-and-white panda-monium in Chengdu, China’s panda capital

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Chengdu thrives on panda tourism, with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding at its heart attracting millions of tourists a year

Chengdu thrives on panda tourism, with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding at its heart attracting millions of tourists a year