Panda Volunteer Program - A Full Day Work
Work for one day at Dujiangyan Panda Base to be a panda keeper
What can you do with the Panda Volunteer Program?
- Get up close and personal with China’s most revered and iconic animal, the Giant Panda!
- Feed pandas, prepare their meals, clean their houses, and learn how to be a panda keeper.
- Receive a certificate of having been a proud panda volunteer for one day in your life.
Our panda volunteer programs offer our guests a full-day experience of taking care of the giant pandas at the Chengdu panda reserve centers located in Dujiangyan.
With a brief training by the professional care specialists, the volunteers will start cleaning pandas’ homes like custodians, preparing lunch for the pandas, and feeding the pandas. After the lunch break, the volunteers will clean the pandas’ mess, ready for their afternoon dessert, and feed the pandas again. In the end, the volunteers will receive the certificates that they can show off their friends of having worked for the lovely pandas for one day in their lives. The entire volunteer work is from 9 am to 4:30 pm. So, this is a full-day adventure with the endangered animal.
Dujiangyan Panda Base is one and a half hours away from Chengdu. About 20 pandas are raised here. There is a limit of 25 volunteers per day for this center. Once the registration with this center is full, we will consider driving further to Wolong.
Qualified Ages of Participants: 12 to 65 years old.
Younger kids under 12 are not permitted to work as volunteers. But they do not have to feel bored. They can tour the center with our tour guides, watch their parents’ work, and watch funny panda videos. They can have a gourmet lunch together with their parents.
To get to Chengdu, you may fly from Beijing, Shanghai, or any other major port of entries in China, or fly directly from the overseas with a direct flight to Chengdu. If you have a tour to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors, you can take a bullet train to Chengdu for only 4 hours. Many customers of ours take this easy way by extending their trip to Chengdu.
Many participants have a connection tour by visiting Xian, where the Terracotta Warriors museum is located, and taking a bullet train down to Chengdu for three and a half hours. It is China’s latest bullet train line that connects the two major cities. To learn more about this connecting trip, please visit the Xian tour pages.
Who can be a Panda volunteer
1. You must be 12 years old at least;
2. You are healthy.
Best way to get to Chengdu for the panda volunteer program
Travel to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors. Then you take the bullet train for just 4 hours to Chengdu where is panda's hometown. This is also the cheapest way to get to Chengdu and save your valuable travel time in China.
Work Schedule
7:00 am
Your guide and driver will pick you up from your hotel in Chengdu and head for Dujiangyan Panda Park located 68 kilometers (about 42 miles) west of Chengdu.
8:30 am
Arrive at Dujiangyan Panda Park. Your guide will help you sign up, get your panda keeper’s card, uniform, and gloves. The staff will give a short orientation with a detailed schedule for the day. Your guide will be there for you all the time, helping taking photos or videos of your memorable moments.
9:00 am – 11:30 am
On duty, work as a real panda keeper!
Your panda keeper service may include but not limited to:
*Clean the panda’s enclosure and playground, such as sweeping up leftover bamboo leaves, washing the floor of their rooms, and sometimes shoveling their poops.
*Prepare food for the pandas, such as washing or carrying bamboos or making some special panda cakes with your own hands and creativity!
*Feed a panda! You got bamboo shoots, apples, carrots, or your handmade cakes—all panda’s favorite, use your hand to feed them but try to keep a safe distance.
11:30 am - 2:00 pm
During your lunch, you can try some local specialty at a local guesthouse outside Panda Park. Take a short rest and walk around in the park after lunch. You will see a 40-minute-long panda documentary, learn about how the shy pandas find a partner, give birth, grow up, get trained, and sent back to the wild.
2:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Back to be a panda keeper again. The actives are the same as that in the morning. As your panda keeper job finishes, you will receive a certificate. Return to Chengdu.
5:00 pm
Arrive at your hotel in Chengdu. Or, we will drop you off at the airport or train station.