On the second day of the “Hong Kong Media Sichuan-Chongqing Tour: Tale of Two Thriving Cities,” a group of about 30 Hong Kong journalists visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. As China promotes cultural and tourism development nationwide, this renowned attraction is innovating in exhibitions, activities, and outreach to sustain its appeal. This year, the base welcomed 6.23 million visitors, with overseas tourists surging over 50% compared to last year, signaling that “panda fever” is heating up both domestically and internationally.
As a renowned tourist attraction, the Chengdu Panda Base innovates in exhibitions, activities, and outreach to maintain its appeal. Photo by Bastille Post.
The Chengdu Panda Base has drawn 6.23 million visitors in 2025 so far, with foreign tourists making up 4%, including over 1,300 from Hong Kong. Since visa-free policies for foreign visitors began, the base saw a 183.81% increase in overseas visitors in 2024 compared to 2023, and a 57.21% rise in 2025 over 2024. The base frequently hosts international tourists, including Southeast Asian tour groups.
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As a renowned tourist attraction, the Chengdu Panda Base innovates in exhibitions, activities, and outreach to maintain its appeal. Photo by Bastille Post.
This year, the base has welcomed 6.23 million visitors so far. Photo by Bastille Post.
A first-time Romanian visitor to China described the base tour as an exciting experience. Photo by Bastille Post.
An Australian visitor recalled owning a panda plush toy as a child, fostering a special connection and lasting fascination with pandas. Photo by Bastille Post.
Overseas visitors have surged by over 50% compared to last year. Photo by Bastille Post.
The base enhances exhibitions with immersive tours, interactive experiences, and recreated habitats to build a science education system. Photo by Bastille Post.
Gift shops at the base offer panda-themed souvenirs for visitors. Photo by Bastille Post.
Visitors can enjoy cute panda-shaped latte art drinks. Photo by Bastille Post.
The base provides gift shops for purchasing panda souvenirs. Photo by Bastille Post.
For convenient ticketing, the base uses a real-name system; Hong Kong visitors can buy tickets online with documents like the Mainland Travel Permit, Hong Kong ID, Re-entry Permit, residence permit, or passport. Photo by Bastille Post.
This year, the base has welcomed 6.23 million visitors so far. Photo by Bastille Post.
Photo by Bastille Post.
A first-time Romanian visitor to China described the base tour as an exciting experience. Photo by Bastille Post.
A first-time visitor from Romania described the experience as “incredibly exciting,” praising the adorable pandas and pleasant local weather. As a blogger, he plans to share videos and images showcasing Chengdu’s wonders with his followers. Having seen pandas in zoos in London and Berlin, where only a few were confined in enclosures, he found it thrilling to see so many pandas in a large, dedicated base. He also hopes to spot a particularly popular panda during further exploration.
An Australian visitor recalled owning a panda plush toy as a child, fostering a special connection and lasting fascination with pandas. Photo by Bastille Post.
An Australian tourist called it a rare chance to observe pandas up close in a natural setting. Recalling a childhood panda plush toy, he feels a special connection and lifelong fascination with pandas. He noted China’s loan of two pandas to Adelaide Zoo in Australia turned it into a tourism hotspot, drawing countless visitors, and hopes such exchanges strengthen bilateral friendship. He plans to invite friends to Chengdu to see pandas and enjoy a drink together.
Photo by Bastille Post.
With the National Day Golden Week approaching, the base expects visitor numbers similar to last year’s 400,000, averaging 57,000 daily. To manage crowds, the base caps daily visitors at 80,000, with separate morning and afternoon tickets, and enhances signage, guidance, and crowd control for quick entry and orderly visits.
Overseas visitors have surged by over 50% compared to last year. Photo by Bastille Post.
Photo by Bastille Post.
Photo by Bastille Post.
To enrich visitor experiences, the base uses immersive exhibits, interactive experiences, and recreated habitats to build a science education system, creating the world’s first panda-themed interactive museum. Along visitor routes, it has developed educational scenes covering pandas, golden monkeys, birds, bamboo, and insects.
The base enhances exhibitions with immersive tours, interactive experiences, and recreated habitats to build a science education system. Photo by Bastille Post.
The base offers diverse, engaging science education activities, including nine themed research courses and nine branded science programs, promoting biodiversity conservation knowledge centered on pandas. These activities remain free, encouraging broad participation.
Gift shops at the base offer panda-themed souvenirs for visitors. Photo by Bastille Post.
Visitors can enjoy cute panda-shaped latte art drinks. Photo by Bastille Post.
Additionally, themed around biodiversity, the base produces science books and films, blending online and offline outreach to vividly spread conservation messages, extending educational impact.
The base provides gift shops for purchasing panda souvenirs. Photo by Bastille Post.
For convenient ticketing, the base uses a real-name system; Hong Kong visitors can buy tickets online with documents like the Mainland Travel Permit, Hong Kong ID, Re-entry Permit, residence permit, or passport. Photo by Bastille Post.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine officials said Thursday the death toll from widespread flooding and devastation caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in the country’s central region has risen to at least 114 with 127 people reported missing, many of them in a hard-hit province still recovering from a deadly earthquake.
Most of the deaths were reported in the central province of Cebu, which was pummeled by Kalmaegi on Tuesday, setting off flash floods and causing a river and other waterways to overflow, said Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense.
Kalmaegi moved away from western Palawan province into the South China Sea before noon Wednesday and was barreling toward Vietnam, according to forecasters.
Among the dead were six people who were killed when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday. The crew was on its way to provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by Kalmaegi, the military said. It did not give the cause of the crash.
Provincial officials said Kalmaegi set off flash floods and caused a river and other waterways to swell. The resulting flooding engulfed residential communities, forcing residents to climb on their roofs, where they desperately pleaded to be rescued as the floodwaters rose, officials said.
At least 71 people died in Cebu, mostly due to drownings, 65 others were reported missing and 69 injured, the Office of Civil Defense said.
It added that 62 others were reported missing in the central province of Negros Occidental, which is located near Cebu.
“We did everything we can for the typhoon but, you know, there are really some unexpected things like flash floods,” Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro told The Associated Press by telephone.
Caloy Ramirez, a volunteer rescuer, said the massive flooding set off by the typhoon turned an upscale riverside residential community in Cebu city on Tuesday into an unrecognizable scene of tumbled SUVs and houses in disarray.
Residents said floodwater engulfed the first floors of their houses in just a few minutes, sending them scrambling to upper floors or roofs in panic.
“We always expect the worst and what I saw yesterday was the worst,” Ramirez told The AP. He described how the faces of desperate residents would light up when they realized they were being rescued.
The problems may have been made worse by years of quarrying that caused clogging of nearby rivers, which overflowed, and substandard flood control projects in Cebu province, Baricuatro said.
A corruption scandal involving substandard or non-existent flood control projects across the Philippines has sparked public outrage and street protests in recent months.
Cebu, a bustling province of more than 2.4 million people, declared a state of calamity to allow authorities to disburse emergency funds more rapidly.
Cebu was still recovering from a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when houses collapsed or were severely damaged.
Thousands of northern Cebu residents who were displaced by the earthquake were moved to sturdier evacuation shelters from flimsy tents before the typhoon struck, Baricuatro said. Northern towns devastated by the earthquake were mostly not hit by floods generated by Kalmaegi, she added.
Before Kalmaegi’s landfall, officials said more than 387,000 people had evacuated to safer ground in eastern and central Philippine provinces.
Ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing out to increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were canceled.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
Central Vietnam, still reeling from days of record rain that triggered flash floods and landslides, was bracing for more pounding rain as Kalmaegi nears.
Fishing boats returned to shore while local authorities readied evacuation plans, secured shelters and stockpiled food, state media reported.
Associated Press journalists Aniruddha Ghosal in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul in Bangkok contributed to this report.
In this photo provided by the Philippine Air Force, Philippine Air Force personnel retrieve the remains of the pilots and crew of the Super Huey helicopter on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, a day after it crashed in Agusan del Sur province, southern Philippines while on a humanitarian and disaster response mission due to Typhoon Kalmaegi. (Philippine Air Force via AP)
In this photo provided by the Philippine Air Force, Philippine Air Force personnel retrieve the remains of the pilots and crew of the Super Huey helicopter on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, a day after it crashed in Agusan del Sur province, southern Philippines while on a humanitarian and disaster response mission due to Typhoon Kalmaegi. (Philippine Air Force via AP)
Residents walk along debris along a shoreline after Typhoon Kalmaegi caused devastation in communities at Talisay City, Cebu province, central Philippines, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
Residents clean up outside their homes after Typhoon Kalmaegi caused devastation in communities at Talisay City, Cebu province, central Philippines, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
Residents try to salvage personal belongings as they return to their damaged homes after Typhoon Kalmaegi caused devastation in communities along the Mananga River in Talisay City, Cebu province, central Philippines, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
Men look at damaged homes after Typhoon Kalmaegi caused devastation in communities along the Mananga River in Talisay City, Cebu province, central Philippines, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
Residents of Isla Verde stand beside a sign which they made to call for help as they return to their damaged homes after Typhoon Kalmaegi caused devastation in communities along the Mananga River in Talisay City, Cebu province, central Philippines, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
Residents return to what remains of their homes after Typhoon Kalmaegi caused devastation in communities along the Mananga River in Talisay City, Cebu province, central Philippines, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
A resident returns to what remains of their home after Typhoon Kalmaegi devastated communities along the Mananga River in Talisay City, Cebu province, central Philippines, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
Cars are piled on top of each other after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Rescue workers prepare to carry away a dead body after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
People walk carrying dogs after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
Rescue workers carry an injured resident as Typhoon Kalmaegi affects Cebu city, central Philippines on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
