03 May 2019
We were very underwhelmed with this tour and disappointed because it isn’t as advertised. The information on the tour indicates close contact with Pandas and an optional picture and cuddling session with them for an extra fee. We planned our trip specifically for this reason, including taking extra cash for payment, filled out physician certified health screening forms, and rearranging our vacation to accommodate. When we arrived however, our guide said close contact or touching the pandas at all is not allowed and hasn’t been since the beginning of 2019. This was not disclosed in the information about the tour and is very misleading. Also, it is advertised as a “private tour” but it is really just a private transport to a group tour, where on our tour day, the were a total of 39 people volunteering. The only interaction we had with the pandas at all was a 10 second episode of feeding 2 small pieces of bamboo to a panda through a cage, and even then the zookeepers were mostly interested in making sure we were sufficiently far away from the pandas to have no contact whatsoever. Lastly, our guide was very detached and spent most of our tour texting and talking on his phone, rather than interacting with my wife and I on our “private tour”. It was so bad, we left early following lunch (which was an unappetizing cafeteria lunch line with the park staff by the way) so we wouldn’t have to waste our afternoon too. Overall, very poor experience that was misleading in description and absolutely not worth the money. Save your money and time and just see the pandas in the zoo, or visit the park on your own and walk around because you’ll have basically the same experience.