Perhaps you remember from my previous post that we did not see any Pandas in the Qinling Zoological Park in both of our visits. But we actually never went there mainly to see these cute animals as we had the perfect location to see them: Shaanxi Wild Animal Conservation Research Centre
My wife’s godfather invited us to that place back in 2011 when my parents were in China as well. Basically he (the godfather) knows someone who knows somebody who was able to get us access to that place for free as there are usually no visitors except of course some well-paying tour groups. I believe it used to be more like a little zoo before as there were still signs and paths all around that place but in a very poor condition. Furthermore to get there was like a maze as towards the end the mini bus had to drive through very small streets of some village to get into a mountain path in the forest. I guess the village just expanded over the years and swallowed the road leading to this research center.
I knew already about this place prior to this visit as my wife had pictures on her Facebook with Pandas before we even started dating. So from her I knew already that there were many Pandas and baby Pandas around at least when she was there. As you know my luck by now there were no cute baby Pandas at this place when we visited. To make it even worse they had only a very limited number of these animals as most were at the Xi’an China International Horticultural Exposition 2011…
But we did see a few Pandas but sadly they were already too big that we were not allowed to enter the cage to feed them. Usually this would have been already enough for us but godfather had another surprise for us, the only brown coloured Panda in the world! As you can see now that the world already knows about this animal however back then it was still a secret and thus we were not allowed to take any pictures.
Besides the Giant Pandas there were many other animals such as one of the rarest birds in the world the crested ibis or other animals such as the red panda, leopards and the golden monkey. All in all I can say it was a very interesting trip no matter if there were only a few Pandas to be seen as we learned many interesting facts about the rare species in that research center. I can just recommend to visit this place if you ever have the chance.
Have you ever seen Pandas close up or other rare animals?
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Crazy Chinese Family 
I’ve seen the red pandas but my favorites are the large black and white ones.
The little red pandas really do look fluffy but they are a more common sight in zoos compared to the giant panda 🙂
It’s too bad there wasn’t any baby pandas the time you visited, but I am sure with your connections, there could always be a ‘next time.’ 🙂
There are some pandas at the Taipei Zoo now but I haven’t been there since they arrived. I may make a trip there one of these days as I am sure the newness of the pandas is wearing off as everyone has probably seen them by now.
Happy New Year!! Hope your 2015 is off to an amazing start!
Oh, I forgot to mention, love the new look of your blog!!
Oh Thanks you, actually I wanted to write only about the new look but then I figured it is more interesting to write about the pandas 🙂
Thank you and I hope the new year will be for you great as well 🙂
I do hope to visit that place at some point again when they have little pandas because I want to feed them some bamboo! It was nice there as no one else was going around except the staff and some foreign helpers
That is a pity you didn’t see too many pandas on your trip there. After all that trouble and the connections, but it still sounded like a great adventure going into the woods. The only pandas I’ve seen are the typical black and white pandas in Singapore but that was a long time ago. In Australia zoos, we can get up close and personal with the animals – holding them and petting them. But no, no. Not for free. That usually costs between $50-$100 for a one hour session 😀
Great new blog look!
That is some big money for just being able to hold and touch the animals!
Here inmy little hometowns zoo they offer some specials for birthday children and their friends. They take the children around the zoo, feed the animals, teach them some new things about the animals and the kids are allowed to touch some of the more peaceful animals (so no wolf fluffing here). As far as I know it only cost little money for the food for the animals, five to six euros, plus the small entrance fee for children 🙂
Thank you, the blog was really some task I avoided the past year. But after I saw many other bloggers updating/improving the look of their blogs I decided it is time for as well and the holidays gave me the needed time to tackle this task
That is so nice of your hometown zoo to have birthday specials for the kids. So generous and I bet not only the kids are happy, but the animals are too meeting new visitors.
Here in Melbourne, the zoo entrance fee is $30 for an adult. Those under 16 years old go in for free on holidays and weekends. But overall it is still expensive. And most animals are behind cages and glass enclosures.
Your blog is certainly looking good, Crazy. Well worth the effort 🙂
I guess they offer this here for children as it is a pretty small zoo and thus the entrance fees are also very low. Furthermore they have the hope to bind the children more to the zoo and its projects to raise awareness for endangered animals 🙂
I’ve seen pandas a few places, though my favorite was at the research base near Chengdu. Your experience sounds really special though! It’s always nice to “know someone” especially in China!
Yes this “I know somebody who knows someone’s who can help you” things are really nice to haves in China 🙂
Through this we can also get mini busses when we go somewhere with the whole family instead of using several cars/ renting them. Now we just need someone who has a great restaurant :p
That brown panda looks just like a dirty albino panda :O
It is surely not the cutest animal but it’s still special to see it as its the only one 🙂
I like the new look of your blog 🙂 and yes, I’ve seen pandas and other rare animals. It’s funny. I usually end up at a zoo sooner or later. But I really like aquariums. Have you been to any good ones lately?
I haven’t been in an aquarium for ages and I don’t know even any good ones in Europe 🙂
Oh and thank you, it was some work to get the blog updated 🙂
Aaa do I have a mini 60l aquarium at home…