I Visited the Chengdu Panda Base – Warning: Extreme Cuteness

I am so excited to announce that I am in Chengdu! Last time I was in Chengdu was way back in 2018 but the city made such a strong impression on me I've just been itching to come back ever since and this is the time! I've got a glorious 10 whole days in front of me of Chengdu bliss to do whatever I want and I'm so delirious with excitement right now I'm thinking it'd be a good idea to share with you the video that I made last time I was here in Chengdu back 3 or 4 years ago Prepare yourselves! Wow! Just wow! So Chengdu here is the capital city of Sichuan province a province known for its spicy, mouth-numbing cuisine Spicy! Very very spicy! So you bet I've got lots and lots of videos coming your way in the next few weeks all about the food of Chengdu but today is not about food nor is it about the leisurely vibe for which this city is known for It's known as the city of entertainment and leisure No, this video is not about that It's also not about the mix of the traditional and contemporary that you can find here in this city No, this video is not about that either This video is all about China's national treasure and the mascot of Chengdu of course, pandas! So I'm here in the hometown of Bingdundun the wildly popular Olympic mascot that people have been lining up for days and days to try and get their hands on People love Bingdundun right now There are Bingdundun biscuits, coffee art ice creams, doughnuts Granted, Bingdundun is super cute but I actually know something even cuter and it's this baby panda dreaming about bamboo This is only just a little sneak peek of the cuteness coming up in today's video as I visit the panda capital of the world Here in Chengdu, you can see pandas and I'm not kidding here, literally everywhere to the point that I've developed this little game that I like to play with myself where I close my eyes, spin around a few times and when I open my eyes, if I can see pandas somewhere in my line of vision, I get a point and you know what? Look over here Pandas! Probably doesn't come as a surprise that I've won a lot of points in this imaginary game I play with myself I love pandas I mean, who doesn't? They are so incredibly cute but to be honest, I don't really know that much about them so I thought while I'm here in Chengdu the panda city, I would pay a visit to the Chengdu Giant Panda Research Base to learn a bit more about them I actually went earlier this morning and I am so excited to share this video with you guys Enjoy! How is it still completely dark right now? So I'm on my way now to the panda base here in Chengdu and the reason I'm up what seems like really, really early is because pandas apparently are a lot more active during the morning so I'm getting there nice and early to hopefully get some good panda action This here is the Chengdu Panda Base If you've been here before, you probably remember it with the huge winding queue outside of the entrance but due to obvious reasons, there aren't as many tourists as there used to be in Chengdu and today I seem to have the place pretty much to myself My guide has arrived! Hello! Hi! So now we just need to find us some pandas real ones, I mean Wait, where is it? Oh there there there, you can see! You can see! Oh my god It's just fallen on its back eating some leaves So I've just had my first panda sighting just behind me here and they are so cute, they grab some bamboo and then they just flop on their backs to eat it But they have a lot of energy when they want to use it One of them was just climbing this tree to get some more bamboo They're quite powerful Pandas also have an exceptionally strong bite, stronger than brown bears or even polar bears This is because pandas have evolved and adapted to eat bamboo, which requires a huge bite force. Legend has it pandas can even bite through iron earning them the title of iron-eating beast in Chinese history I mean, only a real xiong, a real bear could get itself in a position like this It's the funniest, cutest thing I've ever seen There is this baby panda one year old panda See this blob here that you can see? He's decided that this would be the best place to have a sleep and it does not look comfortable but it looks like he's sleeping very soundly He's making some slow movements Let's see how he gets himself out of this spot. Pandas have this reputation for being slow moving and clumsy but they're actually very gifted climbers and in the wild they can often be found high up in the canopies of bamboo forest eating leaves. Anyway, once all the pandas have come down from their trees, it's time for breakfast. As most people will know pandas mostly eat bamboo but what you might not know is that to help them eat their favourite food, pandas have evolved to have five fingers plus one thumb Well, kind of You've got one, two, three, four, five fingers plus this little knobbly thumb thing that helps it pick up bamboo And watching a panda eat is just hypnotising. I feel like each panda seems to have its own technique for getting as much bamboo leaves into its mouth as quickly as possible So it's during this feeding time, around 8-9am that pandas are at their most active and in my opinion, they're cutest As you're just walking through and you're passing these enclosures, you'll just see different pandas, some of them are playing some of them are eating, some of them are just pacing up and down in their enclosures Today I learned that pandas are solitary creatures, which is why the park is split into many individual enclosures with one to three pandas inside each one And just like us each and every panda has its own personality. At each enclosure there's this short introduction of the pandas that live inside And I love that they include some things about their personality like she is stubborn and energetic. With the round shape she often charges into battle for food. Can relate This panda here, she loves eating and sleeping desperately. She doesn't pay much attention to personal hygiene and loves to roll over so her fur has a stronger yellow hue than her friends I spent the most time by the enclosures where mums were playing with its kids Love me a bit of parent-child bonding time But one thing I learned today is that in the wild, mum pandas and baby pandas will part ways relatively early Here are some of the sounds I happened to catch on camera Speaking of babies, we're about to see the youngest pandas that are currently living here at the panda base Currently, there aren't any newborn pandas here but if there were, this is what they'd look like When pandas are born, they're pink and they only start to turn black and white after a few weeks So damn cute! A little sign here, the panda's birthing season is generally June to September each year There are no newborn panda cubs in the incubator They have grown up! The youngest pandas here right now are about 4 months old and they're still learning how to walk and move their bodies Oh my gosh, that is the cutest thing I've ever seen And here comes its equally cute friend Now it's time to play There are lots of toys here at the panda kindergarten for them to play with to help fine-tune their motor skills After about 9am, the panda's active time is over and you're mostly going to be seeing sleeping pandas You really need to come early They've finished eating and they're back to sleeping Panda activity levels are directly related to their unusual diet Because bamboo is so low in nutrients pandas have to eat a lot of it daily and then when the panda is done eating it's back to sleep to conserve the minimal energy gained from the bamboo There's only one other thing besides eating and sleeping a panda will do a lot of, and that's pooping It looks like avocado So a panda's life in four words eat, sleep, poop, repeat Ugh, all this talk of avocados making me hungry I think it's time for lunch and I know just the place So one thing I really wanted to check out while I was here at the panda base is this here, the bamboo restaurant and actually everything on the menu here has something to do with bamboo So here, you can literally eat like a panda and that's exactly what we're about to do And the decor is very on-brand very on-theme, as well as the menu for that matter Bamboo shoot skin Spicy chicken with bamboo shoots Hand-peeled bamboo shoots with scallion oil Sliced beef and ox tongue with bamboo shoots and chilli sauce Yeah, so I think you can see the theme of this restaurant Spicy diced bamboo embryos Wow So it's not only bamboo on the menu there's also all different things related to bamboo This, for example, is zhuocun which is a type of edible fungus that's found on the base of the bamboo plant Oh! Interesting texture, a little bit crunchy So some of the dishes are more obviously bamboo-related like this one here And some of the dishes are a little bit more you know, how do we call it? Obscure Let's try this eggy bird's nest Yeah, eggy salty, nice So this is quite interesting This is huiguorou with bamboo added and huiguorou is one of the most famous dishes from the region from Sichuan and this is basically just huiguorou with bamboo added So you know what, only at the bamboo restaurant you can find this Well that is it for today's panda adventure Thank you so much for showing me around You're welcome But I'm not leaving empty-handed Oh my gosh, how cute is this daily panda calendar Every day is a new panda photo And if you are here in Chengdu one day, come and visit the panda base It was so so interesting And I'm coming to you in the next few weeks with lots and lots of food adventures from Chengdu So stay tuned and I'll see you next time Bye guys!