5 Days Panda Volunteer Tour at Bifengxia Panda Base

Kuan & Zhai Alley

Renmin Park

In the morning, your tour guide will pick you up in the hotel and drive to Kuan & Zhai Alley, also known as “Wide and Narrow Valley”. It’s not only a commercial pedestrian street but also a relatively large-scale of ancient street of Qing Dynasty left in Chengdu. Many exquisite stores are built combining with the quaint and elegant style of the alley, making them favorable spots for taking photos. Along the alley, there are stalls packed with Chengdu local snacks. You can indulge yourself in the sea of gourmets. It is a gallery to show authentic Chengdu folk culture.

Next, you will spend some leisure time and rest in Renmin Park. It’s a time-honored park built in 1911 located in the central downtown. Wandering in this park, you will see why Chengdu is famous for its relaxing life throughout China. The park is filled with citizens practicing Tai Chi, appreciating flowers, taking photos, playing majiang, etc. Parallel of outdoor tea houses crowded with guests drinking teas and chatting with friends constitutes a special picture of the park. Sit down, order a pot of Chinese tea, make a casual chat with your friends and watch locals boating on the lake, your exhaustion will be eliminated.

After having lunch, we will have a short break before visiting a historic site of Chinese Three Kingdom Period (AD 220-AD 280) -- Wuhou Shrine. It was built to commemorate heroes of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang in Shu Kingdom (AD 221- AD 263). It’s the most famous and influential of this kind of shrines containing numerous statues of King Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and other officials of Shu Kingdom, as well as sophisticated inscriptions, couplets that are famous in China, precious works of calligraphy and painting and so on.

When you have finished Wuhou Shrine tour, we will leave from Chengdu to Ya’an Bifengxia Panda Base. It’s 155km away from Chengdu. Upon arrival, you will register, get equipment, get to know how to do the daily work and make well preparation for the following 3-day volunteer work.

Stay overnight in Bifengxia

Bifengxia Panda Base

Bifengxia Panda Base

Today your panda volunteer work begins with the cleaning activity. You are supposed to clean pandas’ enclosures, sweep out the leftovers, replace it with fresh bamboo, and clean out the feces.

Then, the staff will take you to visit the giant panda gardens to closely observe adorable pandas. From 11:00-12:00, you will be able to feed pandas with fresh bamboo, carrot, or panda cake.

During the noon, you can take a break and have lunch while conversing with the permanent employees. If you still have time, you can explore the base, talk with the employees, or even meet some cute pandas. From 1:00-2:00pm, you can go to the Panda Cinema to watch a short documentary to learn more about pandas.

In the afternoon, you will continue your work to do more cleaning and feeding, and learn to make panda’s cakes. The bamboos you supplied in the morning will have become dry by the afternoon. You should remove and replace them with fresh bamboos and then feed the pandas with some more panda cakes and apples. Having fed the pandas with panda cakes, aren’t you curious as to how they are made? It is time to make some panda cakes with your own hands. The ingredients will be prepared in advance. Get creative about the shapes of the cakes.

In the 4:00pm, your volunteer work will be done, and our guide will escort you back to your hotel for a rest.

Stay overnight in Bifengxia

Bifengxia Panda Base

Bifengxia Panda Base

In the morning, you will work as a Scientific Research Assistant to join in some research about panda and their drops to know about their physical facts and feel the hardship of the research of wild population of giant pandas.

In the lunchtime, you’ll enjoy your lunch in the staff canteen after which you can have a rest at the service center or watch science documentary about giant pandas.

In the afternoon, you’ll resume the important work of feeding pandas with their favorite panda cakes, bamboo shoots and fruits. During the break time, you can share your thoughts and experience with other volunteers and staffs and make summary of your relative tasks. And again, feed pandas you take care of for the second time and make panda cakes for them until you wrap your day work.

Stay overnight in Bifengxia

Bifengxia Panda Base

Bifengxia Panda Base

In the last day morning, you will attend a Panda Scientific Lecture to observe the behaviors of giant pandas at the base and preliminarily learn the method of behavioral study. When noontime approaches, you’ll have your lunch in the dining hall with staff. After that you can have a rest at the service center or watch a science documentary about giant pandas.

In the afternoon, you’ll resume the important work of feeding pandas with their favorite panda cakes, bamboo shoots and fruits. During the break time, you can share your thoughts and experience with other volunteers and staffs, and make summary of your relative tasks. And again, feed pandas you take care of for the second time. In about 4:00pm, your merry 3-day volunteer work will come to an end. You will get a certificate for your caring and attending of lovely giant pandas. You can take a photo at the base to record the treasured moment.

Optional Activity: If you are interested in planting fresh bamboos for giant pandas in the 3 days volunteer activity, you can replace the “Scientific Research Assistant” or the “Panda Scientific Lecture” item with the Bamboo Planting Item without extra payment.

Notice:
1. Volunteer activities charge for 700 RMB per day. You need to book it in advance and pay down payment for the tour.
2. The age limit for the volunteering program is 12 years and above.
3. Your latest health check report should be provided.
4. Please do not make noises or sudden movements that might startle the pandas.
5. It is advisable that you do not wear any strong smelling perfumes, deodorants, or creams as pandas are sensitive to smell.

Then the tour ends. We will leave Bifengxia and drive back to Chengdu for your flight/train to next destination or home.