--- title: Sea World & Panda Base date: 2026-03-10 excerpt: February 28 at Qingdao Underwater World, then March 5 at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. tags: [Essay, 青岛, 成都] updated: 2026-07-08 08:17:36 lang: en i18n: cn: /sea_panda translation: 2 --- ## Qingdao Underwater World I went on February 28. The forecast said it would rain, but fortunately it never did. **Notes**: - Taking the metro from the West Coast to Shinan takes a long time, about 2 hours one way. - I went once after graduating from primary school. The layout has not changed much, though the indoor freshwater hall seems to have been renovated. After so many years, I almost could not find the entrance. The student ticket was fairly cheap. - Visit route: - Dream Jellyfish Palace - Seal Hall (dirty glass +1, seals, walruses, sea lions) - Marine Life Hall (sperm whale skeleton specimen, sharks, swordfish, crabs, octopus, etc.) - Whale Hall (the thing I remembered from my primary-school visit was the sperm whale skeleton specimen. In the Whale Hall, the display is its outer skin. It stranded near Tangdao back then and was found by fishermen.) - Underwater World (worth the ticket price; when I have time, I will upload the video to YouTube and embed an iframe here) - Freshwater Life Hall (has arapaima, plus frogs, crocodiles, etc.) - Marine Science and Technology Hall (passed, not interested) - Underwater World leans toward science education and is good for learning about the ocean. Laoshan Polar Ocean World focuses more on animal performances. - Samsung phone battery life is really weak. It would not let me slowly read the exhibition panels. Below are just some thumbnails. I am too lazy to convert the original images to AVIF again. Original images: [📷 GnixAij's Gallery | Underwater World · Second Bathing Beach](https://gallery.vluv.space/?tags=%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%2C%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E6%B5%B7%E6%B0%B4%E6%B5%B4%E5%9C%BA) ### Jellyfish Palace The jellyfish tanks were quite warm. They also displayed sea turtles, natural predators of jellyfish. The glass was a bit dirty. Some tanks used blue lighting, so the photo backgrounds turned blue. ![Pacific sea nettle](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E5%A4%AA%E5%B9%B3%E6%B4%8B%E6%B5%B7%E5%88%BA.jpg?fmt=avif) ![Atlantic sea nettle](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E5%A4%A7%E8%A5%BF%E6%B4%8B%E9%87%91%E9%BB%84%E6%B0%B4%E6%AF%8D.heic?fmt=avif) ![Moon Jellyfish](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/Moon_jellyfish.heic?fmt=avif) ### Other Halls ![Green sea turtle](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E7%BB%BF%E6%B5%B7%E9%BE%9F.heic?fmt=avif) ![Seal](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E6%B5%B7%E8%B1%B9.heic?fmt=avif) ![Geophagus altifrons](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/Geophagus_altifrons.heic?fmt=avif) ![Otter](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E6%B0%B4%E7%8D%AD.heic?fmt=avif) ![Glass Catfish](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/Glass_Catfish.heic?fmt=avif) ![Spotted Garden Eels](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/Spotted_Garden_Eels.heic?fmt=avif) ### Whale Hall ![Beluga specimen](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E7%99%BD%E9%B2%B8%E6%A0%87%E6%9C%AC.heic?fmt=avif) ![Sperm whale specimen](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E6%8A%B9%E9%A6%99%E9%B2%B8%E6%A0%87%E6%9C%AC.jpg?fmt=avif) ![Narwhal](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E4%B8%80%E8%A7%92%E9%B2%B8.heic?fmt=avif) ### Outside the Hall ![On the beach outside](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E9%A6%86%E5%A4%96%E6%B2%99%E6%BB%A9%E4%B8%8A.jpg?fmt=avif) ![Sign outside the hall](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E9%A6%86%E5%A4%96%E6%8C%87%E7%A4%BA%E7%89%8C.jpg?fmt=avif) ![Rocks outside the hall](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C/%E9%A6%86%E5%A4%96%E7%A4%81%E7%9F%B3.heic?fmt=avif) ## Second Bathing Beach I originally planned to have lunch with a classmate at noon, but he suddenly had something to do and changed it to evening. After finishing Underwater World, I was ready to meet him, but my family asked me to come back for dinner, so we moved it to another day again. I navigated to Badaguan, but most places were not open, so I went to the Second Bathing Beach instead. There were four couples taking wedding photos on the beach, and tourists feeding seagulls. ![Photo frame](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E6%B5%B7%E6%B0%B4%E6%B5%B4%E5%9C%BA/%E7%9B%B8%E6%A1%86.heic?fmt=avif) ![Newlyweds on the beach](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E6%B5%B7%E6%B0%B4%E6%B5%B4%E5%9C%BA/%E6%B2%99%E6%BB%A9%E4%B8%8A%E7%9A%84%E6%96%B0%E4%BA%BA2.heic?fmt=avif) ![Newlyweds on the beach](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E6%B5%B7%E6%B0%B4%E6%B5%B4%E5%9C%BA/%E6%B2%99%E6%BB%A9%E4%B8%8A%E7%9A%84%E6%96%B0%E4%BA%BA1.heic?fmt=avif) ![Resting seagull](https://memories.vluv.space/photos/%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E6%B5%B7%E6%B0%B4%E6%B5%B4%E5%9C%BA/%E4%BC%91%E6%81%AF%E7%9A%84%E6%B5%B7%E9%B8%A5.heic?fmt=avif) ## Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding I bought a student ticket on Ctrip plus a video fridge magnet, but unfortunately I could not find the pickup point for the magnet after arriving. Transportation was convenient though: metro plus shuttle bus straight to the entrance. The base covers 3,000 mu. Even walking the whole way was not too tiring. Chengdu warms up much faster than Qingdao, and it felt a bit hot. The magnolias in the park were already blooming, while the ones in my residential compound still showed no movement. ### Indoor Giant Panda Mukbang