Pandas?

[Ms Understood]

This ? may reveal my ignorance but: Does anyone know if it is possible to get to Chengdu to see the Panda sanctuary from either Hong Kong or Shanghai? Been to both HK and Shanghai before and would REALLY love to see the Pandas in a situation where I might pet one. We are on the Feb 09 Legend of the Seas SE Asia trip.

[greatam]

This ? may reveal my ignorance but: Does anyone know if it is possible to get to Chengdu to see the Panda sanctuary from either Hong Kong or Shanghai? Been to both HK and Shanghai before and would REALLY love to see the Pandas in a situation where I might pet one. We are on the Feb 09 Legend of the Seas SE Asia trip.

 

Both places have flights to Chengdu. Air China and Dragon Air (Cathay Pacific Subsidiary) from nonstop from HKG. About $700.00 RT.

 

Air China and Shanghai Airlines fly nonstop from Shanghai. About $500.00 RT.

 

It is about an hour shorter flying from HKG than Shanghai.

 

IF you have the time, you not only want to go to the breeding facility in Chengdu where you can hold the pandas (cost you a fee/donation to hold them), but you may want to actually go into the mountains to the Wolong Panda Reserve and see them in the wild. Not much for accommodations there, but it sure is neat to see a group of them in the wild.

 

I booked my tour through China Highlights. They put bits and pieces together for me. The company below was not nearly has specific as China Highlights-they could not tell me EXACTLY what I was getting for the tour. So I used their tour to plan my own-I chose and booked my own hotel in Chengdu (the Sheraton), booked my own air. China Highlights sent a driver to the airport and got me connected with the tour guide.

 

I did a variation of tour GP 101. Flew into Chengdu-looked around the city. Next day-went to the Breeding/Research facility in the morning. Drove to Wolong reserve that afternoon. Day 3-spent all day out in the wild looking for pandas. Quite a few were radio collared, so the guide found them relatively fast. Had a glorious day up there in the mountains. Day 4-spent the morning observing the pandas in the wild. That afternoon, drove back to Chengdu and went one more time to the Breeding facility. I was NOT interested in the museums, old historic water facility or anything else that they tried to get me to look at. I went to Chengdu STRICTLY for the pandas and I was also on my way to Tibet. It was a spectacular trip. Hope you get to do it-Enjoy!!!!

 

http://www.chinagiantpanda.com/

[Ms Understood]

Thanks for all the info. Hope I can work it out as it does sound like a truly magnificent trip.

[Trece]

Ms Understood - Did you ever get this to work out? We are on Ocean Princess in 2010 and have been to China before. We are thinking of seeing if we can fly from Beijing on one port day & reboarding in Dalian the next. Greatam's suggestion of a tour company is a big help (and I may have questions for him!) but for the moment I thought I'd if you were able to work this out, if so, how, and if not, why not, before I contact China Highlights. Anyone else do this? Many thanks for any assistance!

[Ms Understood]

Trese, no I didnt ever get this worked out. In fact after the earthquake I just kind of resigned myself to skipping it as I had(have) my doubts that the Chinese can get their infra structure back up before Feb. You are aware I'm sure that Chengdu was severely damaged and I believe many of the pandas have been at least temporarily relocated. Could be all back in business by 2010 tho.

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Helen

[sprinkles]

It sounds as if you've made up your mind. But, I just wanted to let you know that we were in Chengdu in September, the panda breeding facility was operating just fine (with plenty of pandas). I even got to pet one and have my picture taken and it was an experience I'll never forget.

 

Tammy

[Trece]

Hi Ms Understood & Sprinkles, Thanks to both of you for your input. Sprinkles, did you do this as part of a land tour or river cruise or were you off an ocean ship? I suspect it was the former or you'd have told me how you did it! Ms Understood, I thought of that, but figured the tour company would tell me if it weren't possible due to earthquake damage.

 

I'm so psyched, I hope we can work it out! I hate to miss seeing the Great Wall again because that was fantastic - but I figure petting a panda is probably something that eventually will not be allowed, and I want to support the facility. And the Great Wall has been there for MANY years, so......:D

[Ms Understood]

Really! Wow, all's well in Chengdu already That's fantastic. Time to re-think.

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Helen

[greatam]

Hi Ms Understood & Sprinkles, Thanks to both of you for your input. Sprinkles, did you do this as part of a land tour or river cruise or were you off an ocean ship? I suspect it was the former or you'd have told me how you did it! Ms Understood, I thought of that, but figured the tour company would tell me if it weren't possible due to earthquake damage.

 

I'm so psyched, I hope we can work it out! I hate to miss seeing the Great Wall again because that was fantastic - but I figure petting a panda is probably something that eventually will not be allowed, and I want to support the facility. And the Great Wall has been there for MANY years, so......:D

 

PLEASE plan what YOU want to do BEFORE you contact any Chinese tour company. Intra China flights are EASILY bookable online. And if you live any place close to a USA Chinatown, there are MANY travel agents that can book your intra China flights.

 

IF you just turn your trip over to a Chinese tour company, you get the packaged tour. Read through the list of tours and what is available at ChinaGiantPanda. com. READ the descriptions for the tours in your time frame (2 days, 3 days, a week, etc). THEN pick out the BEST things YOU want to see and do. Quite a few of the tours spend time looking at temples, the irrigation system (ancient), etc. etc in Chengdu. Those things were of NO INTEREST to me. I wanted to see pandas only. If I happened to see a temple, great. If not, I didn't miss much.

 

I wanted extra time at the breeding facility and the trip to Wolong for pandas in the wild. Those things are generally not available with the package tours. You are rushed through the breeding facility, then go see the temples, etc. I put my own tour together with everything I wanted to do. Then turned it over to China Highlights to book the guides, etc. I got EXACTLY what I wanted for a tour.

 

As posted previously, I booked my own air and hotels. I just needed an English speaking guide to pick me up at the airport and drag me around from place to place. I was also on my way to Llhasa, which needs a special permit generally only available through Chinese tour companies.

[sprinkles]

Trece,

 

We were part of a 19 day escorted land tour (including a 4 night cruise on the Yangtzee river - I posted a review under the other cruise lines section as there is so much stuff over there about Viking and thought I should post about another alternative).

 

I will totally agree with Greatam, Chengdu on your own, as a side trip, would be totally do-able (check out the breeding institute's website, I think they even have local tourist hotels listed on there). I could have easily spent the whole day there just watching Panda's - they also have a lovely lake with a restaurant, etc. When I said that the 3 hours was enough time, I guess I have to put it in context with the whole trip - WE DID ALOT OF STUFF. So in context with the rest of our trip I did not feel rushed, but I would feel very confident doing it on my own if I ever went back.

 

For those interested in the picture with a panda thing, let me try and explain it a little - at least how it worked at Chengdu's breeding facility.:

 

The night before we were going, our guide told us that it would be 1000 yuan cash to hold a panda. So some people had decided that was too steep - but I was still going to pay it. When we got to the park, we found out that the 1 yr olds were sick and that we could not hold the "babies" (if you've seen the pictures, that's when you have to wear the blue smock, two gloves and they put the big kid in your lap). We were told that instead, for 400 yuan we could have our picture taken with an older Panda - so more people decided to do it. You give them your money, they give you booties to wear and one glove. I went across the bridge and stood behind my panda (Yuanda - fairly big 3 yr old male), I could pet him with the gloved hand while they took about 9 pictures of me with my own camera. It really was amazing, I finally got brave toward the end and put my chin down on top of his head so I could feel his fur. The pictures were gorgeous. I don't know if they always offer both options - but for basically $60 I was thrilled.

 

My gut feeling is that this isn't a practice they are going to stop anytime soon, they want the money to take care of the pandas - period.

 

So no matter how you get there, have a great time...

 

Tammy

[sprinkles]

After posting, I was thinking more about the breeding facility and just how easy doing it on your own would be. Fly to Chengdu, have hotel address printed out in Chinese to give to taxi. Hotels will help you with other local things. Taxi to park. The park is a fairly good size, you can hire English speaking tour guides, right at the gate area (there is a tourist center there where I'm sure you could also set up the photo opp thing). Our group walked the whole park, but they do have electric golf carts that for 10 yuan you get a three stop pass (up to the panda areas, over to the lake restaurant area and back to the gate). I was playing around on the institute's website and they really do have alot of information on there. I didn't go to the Woolong Nature preserve, that might take a little more effort, but the breeding facility would be easy as pie. As far as the panda areas, the three big draws are the infants in the nursery, the kindergartner's area and the juveniles area. I do know that you want to be at the park as early as you can in the morning, as that is when they are the most active.

 

Tammy

[Trece]

Greatam and Sprinkles, You both have given me tons of information & a lot to think about. Fortunately I'm so much in the formative stages that I don't have too many preconceived ideas of how to handle it. I hope you'll both continue to add thoughts as you think of things.

 

Greatam, I did look at some of the flights from Beijing to Chengdu to Dalian and I can see that I can book them on my own, which would be my gut instinct as well. However, earlier this year we went to Egypt for the 4th time & this time put our own trip elements together, and I found that the Egyptian ground operator I was using for some of the tours could get far better prices on the same flights/airlines than I could on the internet. Not just a few bucks but a lot of bucks. He was also available to run interference if something came up (in China, for example, say our ship can't make that port due to weather, at least I'd have someone to contact to make changes for me rather than trying to do it myself from the ship). For those reasons I think I'd at least give a tour company the chance to price for me - doesn't hurt to ask. Also, transfers from Beijing port (I can't remember it's name) to the airport and then Dalian airport to Dalian port have to be arranged. I'm not totally sure I'd want to rely on cabs. Here a tour company would be able to communicate more easily than I could with the ship's agent if anything dire came up. I'm thinking there are enough differences in what you were doing before & after your panda "module" and what we will be doing before & after ours that POSSIBLY a tour company might be a better choice.

 

I think you're absolutely right about the package situation and I definitely would want WHAT I want and basically what I want is a panda experience! I think the logistics of getting there & back are going to have to be padded with some extra time as it is and I don't want to bite off more than we can chew. I will definitely take your advice and be very assertive about what I want. I hope you'll continue with the advice & guidance!

 

Sprinkles, thanks for the details about the actual experience, if possible I'm even more excited, and also that you agree with Greatam that we're not raving lunatics for trying to do this on our own. I wish we could do it in one day, but as you say it's important to be there in the morning, and I just don't think I can assume we could get off the ship & to the airport & to the facility in "the morning." That's why I thought maybe Woolong on Day One & the breeding facility on Day Two would be good. It'd be nice if I could find another lunatic or two on our sailing who would want to do this as well!

 

I truly appreciate the assistance from both of you. Please continue to post any random thoughts!! :D