Pandas. One of the cutest, most adorable products of evolution. With their white and black fur and fluffy and cuddly appearance, it is almost impossible to resist the thought of seeing one at least once in your lifetime.

Panda or Giant pandas are endangered species since 1990 due to poaching and high deforestation in 1980. China has been working very hard to conserve these animals.

If you’re planning to join a panda tour. That’s precisely the reason why you’ve come to this page, and that is exactly what we are going to bring to you: the best and affordable Chengdu panda tours.

So, without much ado, let’s scroll your mobile’s screen or if you’re on a PC, let’s roll your mouse wheel below!

ALSO READ: Check these Panda bases

HOW TO CHOOSE A CHENGDU PANDA TOUR

First, let’s go over some of the things that you should take into consideration when choosing a panda tour:

Ethical and certified

We highly recommend checking the background of the company running the tour. Know if they are taking care of their pandas well. The company should be ethical in its ways, i.e., the pandas must be kept in a place as close to their natural habitat as possible, free to roam, not forced to do anything they don’t want to. No overfeeding just for the sake of photo opportunity.

By supporting ethical and certified companies, you’re sure that you are not supporting those who are not so considerate of the welfare of the Pandas.

Full service

Another thing to consider when choosing a Chengdu panda tour is the range of services that a company offers. You must ask your self if a guide suits your preference. An optional tour guide service is a convenient option to have, especially if you do not know how to speak Chinese.

How much time you have

Depending on the time that you have, you may want to choose a half-day tour or a full-day tour. If you’re not in a hurry and you feel like all the time in the world are yours, then, by all means, go for a full-day tour.

But if you have a tight schedule or a limited time in Chengdu, or if you have time, but you’d rather spend some of it with another type of tour, or maybe to explore Chengdu’s nook and cranny, then it’s best to book a half-day panda tour.

Chengdu panda tour plus other activities

Another thing to consider when choosing a panda tour in Chengdu is the extra activities included. This is a great way to make the most out of your time in Chengdu, as you’ll only not enjoy the sight of pandas, you’ll also be entertained by other activities, too!

To give you an example, some Chengdu panda tours offer a visit to red pandas, which is one of the rarest species of animals in China. Some offer a visit to several historical sites, and others include activities that get you up close and personal with a giant panda.

If you want your Chengdu panda tour to be slightly different than a regular panda tour, look for a one that includes extra activities.

HALF-DAY CHENGDU PANDA TOUR

Now that we’ve given you a guideline on how to choose your Chengdu panda tour, it’s time we move to our main objective: to share with you some of the best panda tours in Chengdu! Let’s start by presenting some of the best half-day tours in Chengdu below:

Giant Panda Breeding Research Base

The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base designed the whole place to mimic the Pandas’ natural habitat, which means that you’ll be able to see them playing, eating, or sleeping like how they do these things in the wild. 

Aside from that, this tour also gives you the flexibility and freedom to visit some of the most famous tourist attractions in the area, namely the Dujiangyan and Mount Qingcheng, Leshan Giant Buddha.

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Private Half-Day Chengdu Panda Breeding Center Tour with Optional Panda Feeding

Have you ever dreamed of feeding a panda? Well, you can turn that dream into reality by joining this Chengdu panda tour. The tour starts in the morning at either the Dujiangyan Giant Panda Center or the Chengdu Panda Breeding Center from Chengdu.

You’ll be toured around the panda centre by a panda keeper while being educated with facts about these lovely animals. As a bonus, you’ll also get the opportunity to see the rare red pandas, too! Pickup and drop-off are included in this package.

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FULL DAY CHENGDU PANDA TOUR

If you feel like a half-day tour isn’t enough, you can definitely opt for a full day panda tour! Here are some of the best full-day tours to join in:

Chengdu Panda Breeding Center and Historic Private Day Tour

The tour starts in meeting and greeting the giant pandas doing their thing freely in their almost natural habitat. Your group will then go back downtown for a quick meal before heading to Dufu’s Thatched Cottage to learn more about the local history.

As a finale, you have the privilege to visit the Wuhou Temple where you will learn about the life of Zhuge Liang, a famous figure during the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

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One day as Volunteer: Big Panda in Sichuan

Seeing pandas are great. But if you want to take your panda-loving nature to the next level, why not take up the role of a panda caretaker for a day? Cleaning their home while having the opportunity to pet a real-life panda is going to be super fantastic.

Plus, you’ll gain more in-depth insight into these majestic creatures’ biology and behaviour. Also, you don’t have to worry about making mistakes during the activities because you’ll be supervised by a professional and English-speaking tour guide.

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PRIVATE CHENGDU PANDA TOUR

If you prefer going on a trip by yourself or exclusively with your close friends and loved ones, then the best option for you is to book a private tour. Here are some of the best private Chengdu panda tours you might want to check:

Chengdu Sightseeing with Panda Breeding Center Visit

This tour will take you to some of the historic sites in Chengdu. You’ll get to spend a couple of hours just adoring the adorable pandas, and also have the chance to visit a Zen Buddhist monastery where you can learn a thing or two about the Zen teachings.

A relaxing cup of tea at a nearby traditional teahouse is also included in the tour, and if that’s not enough, feel free to upgrade to get a visit to the Sichuan opera included in the itinerary.

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Dujiangyan Wolong Panda Tour

Dujiangyan Wolong Panda Tour is a great tour to not just learn about pandas and their quirks. But you can also personalize how the journey goes; You can play the role of a panda keeper, or simply take pictures of the animals, or maybe visit the red pandas, too.

Whatever activity you choose to include in this private tour, you will be accompanied by a professional guide in every step of the way! Also, you can opt to visit the Kongfu Panda Village if you want. A complimentary lunch is included in this tour.

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So, we’ve covered everything you need to know about panda tours! From the things to ask yourself before booking a visit to the type of panda tour to select, depending on your preferences. The last few steps are, of course, choosing, booking, and enjoying the tour.

We hope we’re able to help you choose the best Chengdu panda tour that suits your needs! If you have any questions, suggestions, or if you want to add something to the things that we’ve discussed above, feel free to leave a comment below. And we’re wrapping this up by wishing you happy times with the pandas in Chengdu!

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If you are travelling to Chengdu in Sichuan Province for your backpacking in China, then there is no better thing to do than plan a Chengdu panda tour to visit the giant pandas that are indigenous to the region.

One of the rarest animals in the world, the giant pandas were once close to extinction due to deforestation and construction that destroyed a large part of their natural habitat in the areas around Chengdu in Sichuan, as well as small areas in Gansu Province and Shaanxi Province.

This native Chinese bear has been far gone that only appear during the reign of a benevolent emperor. The giant panda is found mostly in Sichuan Province, where it lives wild in the mountain ranges to the north and west of the city.

With only around 1,500 giant pandas living in the wild in China, preservation of the beautiful monochrome-coloured bear is of utmost importance, and there are several panda research and breeding centres in Sichuan Province that are dedicated to preserving this beautiful creature from extinction. While if you are into historical places to visit, you should be able to do that throughout the country,

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Before Visiting China

Before you plan or book anything, I recommend you plan this trip properly especially if it’s your time to visit this country which is as we all know not the easiest place to travel.

Apart from the language barrier, once you’re in China, there are things you can’t simply do like communicating to the “outside world”, accessing the internet, or even simply using your map on your phone.

I highly recommend you to book your tours with a reliable tour company, arrange your accommodations beforehand, and read many China travel tips as much as you can. Remember, you can never be ready, but it’s important to minimise the hassle during your trip.

Chengdu Panda Base

The first research base for giant pandas, the official name is the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, though it is most commonly known as the Chengdu Panda Base. We recommend you check these affordable Chengdu Panda tours.

The centre was opened in 1987, starting with six giant pandas that had been rescued from the wild after logging in their habitat killed off dozens of the rare creatures. Within 20 years, the centre had managed to successfully bread 124 giant panda cubs, despite the pandas not being easy to breed.

The centre is located in the northeast of Chengdu, around ten kilometres from the city centre, at the base of Futou Mountain. One of the best ways to visit the Chengdu Panda Base is on one of our tours, as the site is vast and it is easy to get lost.

The centre sees more than 3.5 million travellers a year pass through its gates, and those numbers are constantly increasing, As the most popular panda centre in China, it is undoubtedly the best place to go to see these stunning creatures, although it does look a little more like a zoo than a natural habitat centre.

However, while the enclosures are not as large as in some of the other centres in Sichuan, the pandas do have a lot of room to live freely within the habitats, and while they are there for breeding and research, the young are often sent to other centres to be rehabilitated into the wild once they are old enough.

Handling the pandas was a popular activity in the past years, although this is no longer available at the centre due to contact with humans causing the pandas to get ill. That does not mean it is not worth seeing though, as there are plenty of opportunities to view the pandas in their habitats, and many of the older animals, which have been there for many years now, are so used to people that they often come out, drawn by the crowds of people that are there to see them.

Wolong Panda Base

The Shenshuping Panda Base at Wolong is around 150 kilometres from Chengdu and was built to replace the former Wolong panda base at Hetaoping, which was too small. While smaller in area than Bifengxia, it has the world’s largest breeding centre for giant pandas and is one of the main scientific study sites for the animals.

The site is only open from April to November and is located in Gengda Township, in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan.

The centre holds around 60 per cent of the world’s giant panda population in 59 different enclosures where the pandas live and roam in their natural habitat. The site is located in the area of one of the giant panda’s natural ranges in Sichuan Province, which makes the landscape and flora ideal for the care and breeding of the pandas.

The centre offers several activities for visitors, including day keeper programs and educational programs that teach visitors about the history and care of the giant pandas. The centre is completely self-sustaining for the pandas and was sponsored by the government of the Hong Kong SAR after the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 severely damaged the site at Hetaoping.

The panda centre is actually part of a much larger nature reserve that has more than 4,000 different species of animals inside its boundaries, which covered around 20,000 hectares in total when it was built. The nature reserve was opened in 1963, in the Qionglai Mountains in Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province, and has since been extended to include the panda’s natural habitat, now hovering around 200,000 hectares.

The reserve is primarily a panda breeding and research centre now, though it does have large populations of snow leopards, red pandas, golden monkeys, and white-lipped deer, the main type of deer found on the Tibetan plateau. As of this time, it is estimated that around 150 giant pandas also live inside the reserve, running wild in the hills and mountains.

Dujiangyan Panda Base

Located in the Shiqiao Village of Qingchenshan Town, the Dujiangyan Panda Base is also the Center for Disease Control in southwest China. The centre lies around 55 kilometres to the northwest of Chengdu, close to the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, the world’s oldest water diversion program that does not have a dam.

While there are not a huge number of pandas in the centre, mostly catering to the conservation of the smaller red panda, the centre does have a great reputation for caring for these lovely creatures and has a lot of activities for its visitors.

As well as being able to tour the centre and learn about the history and rarity of the giant panda, and what the centres are currently doing to bring these beautiful creatures back from the brink f annihilation, there are also a few rare positions for becoming a panda keeper for the day, though this is an expensive day out, costing more than 300 US dollars.

The volunteer program at the centre only allows 60 people per day to join, so make sure you are booked before heading there, as you may be disappointed. The program allows you to interact more closely with the pandas, and you will be attending panda classes, cleaning the enclosures, making the food for the pandas and feeding them, visiting the Panda Center of Science and Education, and helping with any cubs that are in the centre at the time of your visit.

Bifengxia Panda Base

Located at Ya’an City in Sichuan Province, the Bifengxia Panda Base is a research base and breeding facility that was opened as recently as 2004, to cater to the growing number of pandas being bred in captivity for release into the wild. The centre was built on a maiden forest in the Bifeng Valley just outside Ya’an City and has become one of the most natural of the panda centres in southwest China. The area

The centre was originally intended to just house the adolescent pandas that were not yet in the breeding programs, and give a home to the older pandas that were too old to continue breeding.

The perfect panda retirement home, the centre’s habitats are spread over a huge area, including leopard Mountain, New leopard Mountain, Bai Xiong Ping, and the quarantine area of Bi Tang, with a kindergarten and nursery, and now a breeding centre too, with a research centre and hospital.

After the earthquake in 2008 that damaged the Wolong Panda Base, 40 giant pandas were shipped to Bifengxia for care and rehabilitation, and the many large enclosures were split to accommodate the new arrivals.

A new breeding centre was also built, with 14 camera-monitored enclosures that are monitored 24/7 to ensure successful breeding of the pandas.

The Panda Garden is one of the most popular attractions within the centre, which houses 60 giant pandas in the Bifeng Gorge Scenic Area, where the pandas are in their own natural habitat in an area that was once a natural area of the panda’s range.

The area has been rehabilitated to improve and increase the amount of bamboo that grows there, the natural food of the giant pandas and 99 per cent of their diet.

One of the additional attractions near the Bifengxia Panda Base is the Bifengxia Zoo, on the northern side of the Thousand-Stage Waterfall, one of the amazing attractions at the panda centre.

While the zoo does not have any giant pandas in residence, there are plenty of other animals there, including the unrelated red panda, which looks more like a North American raccoon, as well as snow leopards, monkeys, deer, and a multitude of other animals native to China and Southeast Asia.

Conclusion

Chengdu has more centres for giant pandas than any other province in China, mostly because of the location in relation to the animals’ natural range in the mountains to the north and west of the Sichuan Basin.

For travellers wanting to make the most of their tour in Chengdu, you can spend several days visiting the different centres, each of which has a very different layout and area for the panda enclosures.

For those that do not want to travel far from the city, the Chengdu Panda Base is the closest, lying in the city itself, while the most natural is the Wolong Panda Base, which has a wider area of natural habitat for the pandas in their own natural range in the mountains.