Chongqing Zoo is located at the western suburb of the main urban area. It occupies more than 60 hectares of land and there are 230 kinds of more than 4500 rare and precious wild animals be shown in this zoo throughout the year, among them 80 percent of the animals belong to world rare species and national protecting important animals. Pandas are most popular among of that. In the Panda Ground at the foot of a hill and by a little stream, visitors can see charmingly native giant and lesser pandas and their offspring. Visitors can actually play with them and take pictures with them.

The largest zoo in southwest China with over 1000 birds and 170 species of animals, where you can see charmly naive giant panda, lesser pandas and their offspring, golden hair monkeys and South China tigers.

If you're going to Chengdu and have time to visit one of the panda breeding centers (in the northern suburbs or at Wolong), then don't bother with the Chongqing Zoo. But if this is your only chance to see pandas, consider spending part of a morning at the giant panda and red panda enclosures. To get to the red pandas, go to the left of the English introduction board and down the stairs. The outdoor enclosure has a half-dozen extremely active small red pandas. Don't bother with the rest of the zoo; it will only depress you.

The best chance of seeing pandas is during feeding -- between 8:30 and 10:30am. If the pandas aren't out, poke your head in the office behind the English introduction board and ask the zoo warden if he'll feed them. Sometimes that's all it takes.