Is Chimelong Safari Park Worth Visiting?

Yes, if a full day and a premium ticket price fit your trip: Chimelong Safari Park keeps more than 500 species and over 20,000 animals, including the world's only living giant panda triplets, and its own site treats its large free-roaming areas, seen by self-drive car, train or cable car, as the main event. A standard adult ticket costs ¥300, as of September 2026. If you want a shorter, cheaper stop instead, Guangzhou Zoo sits inside the city, charges ¥20, and has its own new pair of pandas.

Which venue to choose

Guangzhou's directory lists two venues, and they sit at opposite ends of a day out. Chimelong Safari Park is the bigger commitment: part of the Guangzhou Chimelong Tourist Resort owned by Chimelong Group, it opened on 26 December 1997 and has grown into a collection of more than 500 species and over 20,000 animals. Guangzhou Zoo is older still, open since 1958, and is ranked with Beijing Zoo and Shanghai Zoo as one of China's three major city zoos -- but covering nearly 42 hectares and holding over 400 species against Chimelong's 500-plus, it is the smaller day out.

Price marks the difference just as clearly. Chimelong's weekday standard ticket is ¥300, fifteen times Guangzhou Zoo's ¥20 full-price ticket. Choose Chimelong if the panda triplets, koalas and self-drive routes are the point of your trip; choose the zoo if you want an affordable few hours near the city centre rather than a full-day safari park.

What not to miss

Featured location Chimelong Safari Park Guangzhou, People's Republic of China Chimelong Safari Park, opened in 1997, is a safari park in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.

Chimelong's own site names Komodo dragons, Tiger Mountain, Giraffe Plaza, the aerial cable car, Panda Land and the Koala Garden among its "hot spots." Its panda triplets are, by the park's own description, the only ones alive anywhere, and its koala population is the largest kept outside Australia. The park frames its free-roaming wildlife areas, toured by self-drive car, train or cable car, as the way to see them, rather than walking between enclosures.

For children aged five and up, a Little Zookeeper programme lets kids help make animal feed and learn about the animals' care under a keeper's guidance -- a hands-on alternative to looking through glass. Before you go, check the park's own notices: on 12 September 2026 it announced the Flower and Fruit Mountain area and the 4D stage were temporarily closed, and the Panda Village exhibit had already closed on 17 May 2026, so not every advertised area is guaranteed to be open on the day you visit.

Tickets and saving money

As of September 2026, Chimelong charges ¥300 for a standard adult ticket, ¥210 for a child, senior or concession ticket, and ¥240 for a youth ticket, all on weekdays. Guangzhou Zoo is far cheaper: ¥20 for a full ticket and ¥10 for a half ticket. If pandas rather than the wider collection are your main reason for visiting, that price gap is worth weighing -- Guangzhou Zoo's own pair, Jiu Jiu and You You, only moved into a new pavilion on 20 October 2025, having been born at Zoo Aquarium de Madrid in Spain.

Their names mean 'Forever' and 'Friendship,' respectively, in Chinese, symbolizing the enduring friendship between China and Spain.

The new pavilion gives the pair, by the same report, a spacious and modern space with a dedicated team of keepers and vets.

Best time to visit

Guangzhou has a humid subtropical climate, so a cooler month makes the self-drive route and the walking areas more comfortable. Chimelong's own hours change month to month rather than staying fixed: as of September 2026 it opens 9:30am to 6pm, and you should check its site for your own travel dates rather than relying on this one month's schedule. The other date worth planning around is China's National Day Golden Week, which begins around 1 October and is one of the periods of greatly heightened domestic travel nationwide -- a safari park built around a limited number of roads is exactly the kind of place a crowd surge slows down.

Getting there

Guangzhou Zoo is more central, at 120 Xianlie Middle Road, and is reachable directly by Guangzhou Metro Line 5's Zoo station or Line 6's Huanghuagang station via Exit A.