When visitors come to town one of the first things we ask is "Do you want to see the pandas?" because that is what Szechuan (spell check won't accept Sichuan as a spelling, which is how it is actually spelled) is know for. I have tried many different ways of explaining where we are to people who don't know China, and none of them work as well as Sichuan-it's where the pandas are. Once I say that I get the ooohhhh accompanied by the nod of the head which means "I still don't know what you are talking about but I'm going to pretend that I do because I've heard of pandas--they're in China right?".
I've been to the Panda base 4 or 5 times now (we don't get that many visitors) and I still mostly like it. Pandas are cute, but they aren't the most entertaining animal out there.
When you go see them, you are basically either going to see pandas eating, sleeping, or walking someplace else to eat or sleep.
That being said, the panda base is huge! There are a bunch of different panda enclosures, and each one is nicely landscaped with lots of flowering trees, shrubs and bamboo. It's not the Taipei Zoom which has to be one of my favorite places, but it's a nice morning out. And you get to see the cute cuddly-looking pandas in something which resembles a natural habitat.
If you are curious, there is apparently a video there that goes into great detail about panda breeding in captivity--but I'm not curious about that at all.
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