Inside China's panda city, where conservation and tourism coexist

Jin Dou, a 3-year-old giant panda, sits on a tree at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China, June 30. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

CHENGDU, China — The moment 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. It is a preview of a metropolis where China’s most beloved animal is everywhere, from street murals to subway ads, and sits at the city's cultural identity and tourism boom.

As endangered species, giant pandas are one of only three panda species, and they are only found in China. Around 1,800 are believed to be the total number of live giant pandas, cool and humid bamboo forests in the mountains in Sichuan Province, where Chengdu is the capital, is home to 72 percent of them.

The city has transformed the 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,” said panda tour guide Zhao Liping as she was leading a group of reporters past leafy enclosures at the Chengdu base. “If you like to visit the whole base, it’s going to take you around seven hours.” She explained that some 270 giant pandas live at the base, though a typical visit reveals around 140.

“Where are the rest?” she asked, before answering her own question with a smile. “You know, some of them are working abroad, they’re on a business trip in other countries. And if some of them are too old, then they would retire, like humans.”

Meng Yuan, a 7-year-old giant panda born in Zoo Berlin, Germany, eats bamboo trees at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China, June 30. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Chengdu research base

Opened in 1987 and expanded in 2023 with a new area, the Chengdu base is now a government-backed, nonprofit conservation center that runs panda breeding programs, veterinary and genetics research, prerelease training and a dedicated panda museum, positioning tourism as a way to fund protection and educate millions of visitors each year rather than simply display animals for entertainment.

The base was born out of crisis. In the 1980s, mass bamboo flowering and die-offs 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,” she said. “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 meters, with family group 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 said. To keep them mentally healthy, “around four or five months later … the keepers would change a new enclosure for them. If they move to a new place, they’re going to feel fresh.”

A visitor takes a photo of a giant panda at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China, June 30. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

In the late-morning heat, pandas spend their time leisurely stripping bamboo, tumbling over one another on tree trunks and climbing frames, and even sinking into cold-water pools to escape the rising heat.

Visitors press against the railings, quietly gasping at every clumsy roll and splash while staff walk the paths holding “silence” placards to keep the visitors calm and silent. When the temperature climbs, keepers gradually usher pandas back into shaded indoor enclosures to protect their health.

Learning fun facts about pandas

The guide urged visitors to notice the “dark circles” around each panda's eyes.

“Even though they’re all black and white, actually, each of them looks different, especially their dark circles,” she said. “Every one of them has a different shape and size; it’s like fingerprints, very special. So you can use the dark circles to recognize who is who.”

Zhao explained the animals’ famously leisurely lifestyle.

“People think they eat and sleep every day, it sounds very lazy,” she said. “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 of bamboo.”

Their digestion is so inefficient that panda droppings are still largely composed of bamboo fiber, which the base recycles. “Bamboo fibers are the perfect materials to make papers and tissues. So we recycle these panda droppings,” Zhao explained.

Stuffed panda dolls inspired by Hua Hua, China's most popular panda living at the Chengdu base, are on display at a gift shop at the research base, June 30. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Meet Hua Hua

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 said Hua Hua’s special appeal lies partly in her unusual proportions.

“Other adult pandas, if they stood up, can reach 1.8 meters,” she said. “But Hua Hua can only reach 1.5 meters. 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 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 traveled to China to see her in person.

China currently sends several dozen giant pandas 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.

Beijing first sent a pair named Ming Ming and Li Li to Korea in 1994 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 in Yonggin, Gyeonggi Province under a 15-year agreement, leading to the birth of Fu Bao in 2020. Fu Bao was the first giant panda born in Korea, triggering a fandom among Koreans.

Pandas feed city's tourism

Panda tourism is a big business. For example, the Chengdu Research of Giant Panda Breeding and its related Panda Valley site attracted about 11.9 million visitors in 2023 alone, generating some $64 million in ticket revenue.

During this year’s five-day Labor Day holiday, 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.

Panda-themed souvenirs are on display at a traditional tea house in Chengdu, China, June 30. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

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 swaths of municipal territory overlap with designated wild panda habitat. Municipal campaigns use panda imagery to promote everything from green transportation to cultural festivals, and tourism centered on pandas.

In recent years, Chengdu has climbed into the top tier of Chinese city-break destinations, often ranking just behind megahubs like Beijing and Shanghai, as its panda bases, panda-themed city branding and relaxed food-and-cafe culture turned it into a preferred getaway for both domestic and international travelers. Local experts now estimate that panda-themed tourism and merchandise in Sichuan constitute a business worth 1 billion yuan annually.

Giant panda structures are on display to welcome travelers at the Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in China, June 28. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Upscale panda experience

Meanwhile, Hilton’s new partnership with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding offers upscale panda experience with a crowd-free, early-morning program 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 maximize time in front of active pandas and end at the panda museum for a more reflective, science-based experience.

Visitors are seen wearing panda headbands at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China, June 28. AFP-Yonhap

For Zhao and many Chinese people, the animal at the center of this ecosystem is more than a mascot.

“In history, Chinese people treasured them,” she said, noting that as early as the Tang Dynasty, pandas were sent to Japan as national gifts.

“Now the pandas only live in China, which is very special, and they’re very cute and people in the world love them. So they’re very important to China. Now they’re kind of a peaceful ambassador of China. We transfer them to all over the world; they build a bond between China and other countries.”