Panda Room in Chongqing Zoo
The largest zoo in southwest China with over 1000 birds and 170 species of animals, where you can see charmly naive giant panda, lesser pandas and their offspring, golden hair monkeys and South China tigers.
If you're going to Chengdu and have time to visit one of the panda breeding centers (in the northern suburbs or at Wolong), then don't bother with the Chongqing Zoo. But if this is your only chance to see pandas, consider spending part of a morning at the giant panda and red panda enclosures. To get to the red pandas, go to the left of the English introduction board and down the stairs. The outdoor enclosure has a half-dozen extremely active small red pandas. Don't bother with the rest of the zoo; it will only depress you.
The best chance of seeing pandas is during feeding -- between 8:30 and 10:30am. If the pandas aren't out, poke your head in the office behind the English introduction board and ask the zoo warden if he'll feed them. Sometimes that's all it takes.