Korea's newest panda Shu Bao prepares to meet fans as Everland goes wild for fall

YONGIN, Gyeonggi — At just 105 days old and 5.7 kilograms (12.6 pounds), giant panda cub Shu Bao is already the talk of Everland, Korea's largest theme park. But visitors can’t see her just yet.

When they finally can in a few months, there will be moments they won’t want to miss.

“By then, Shu Bao will be at an age when she can walk and follow her mother around to nurse,” zookeeper Song Young-kwan told reporters Tuesday at the theme park. “Visitors may get to see her nursing during the day, or they may not. That would make it a particularly precious sight.”

Then again, the newest member of Everland’s Bao family may not have to do much to win over the crowds.

“Just watching Shu Bao toddle around will be enough to melt people’s hearts,” Song said.

Before the youngest cub born to Le Bao and Ai Bao goes on public view later this year, she has a few milestones to clear.

“The most important thing is that Shu Bao must be able to walk properly on her own and make her way to her mother,” zookeeper Kang Cheol-won said. Judging by her older sisters' development, he added, that could take another three months.

For now, Kang and Song, who are affectionately known as the "grandpas" of Everland’s panda family,  are just enjoying watching their newest granddaughter grow little by little.

“Her pair of tiny canine teeth are slowly poking through. Her eyes can now see, and about half of her nose has turned black,” Kang said.

Give her another month and he believes “her nose will turn completely black, and she’ll really become a full-fledged panda.”

Shu Bao — her name meaning “a treasure as bright as the light of dawn” — may still be young, but her grandpas say she is already developing a personality of her own and is much more docile than her older sisters Fu Bao and twins Rui Bao and Hui Bao.

Currently, Ai Bao and Le Bao can be seen at Panda World, though Ai Bao appears less often as she cares for her new cub. Rui Bao and Hui Bao live at Panda Second House.

Once Shu Bao goes on public view, however, viewing times could be limited if there is a large crowd, Kang said, asking visitors for understanding.

“We want to show their [pandas'] best sides to as many people as possible.”

But the Bao Family is just one of many things to see at Everland this fall. For the season, which kicked off on Saturday, the theme park has expanded its lineup to offer two very different experiences by day and night.

The wild comes closer

By day, visitors can become explorers themselves, walking across the vast wilderness on the Wild Savanna Expedition for up-close encounters with giraffes, rhinos and 13 other species of wildlife.

The newly introduced Wild Savanna Expedition takes visitors directly into Lost Valley on foot, which was previously explored aboard a safari vehicle. The route also opens the previously paid River Trail section to participants for free.

Walking along a floating bridge over the waterway between Safari World and Lost Valley, explorers can enjoy both sides of the animal kingdom — from herbivores quietly going about their day to lions and hyenas prowling their enclosures.

Among them is Kosik, a 5.2-ton elephant that eats around 50 kilograms of food a day.

If they are lucky, he might even show off his unusual ability to imitate several Korean words, including saranghae, or “I love you.”

The program is an expanded version of Everland’s Walking Safari, which drew some 350,000 visitors during a monthlong trial run this spring. Everland revamped both the route and its content for the fall season based on visitor feedback.

Along the way, zookeepers stationed at different animal sections share stories about the animals. But the real highlight is getting to watch your favorite animals up close — with no glass in between — for as long as you like.

The roughly 1-kilometer (0.6-mile) Wild Savanna Expedition runs through the end of November and is free to all Everland visitors through an on-site queue.

Meet the zombies face to face

When night falls, however, something considerably scarier comes alive.

And watch your back. It might be a zombie.

“No!”

A small child shrieked before darting straight into his mother’s arms after a zombie startled him from behind.

After 4 p.m., Blood City Zero, Everland’s signature fall horror zone, begins its transformation into something resembling a horror movie set.

Celebrating its 10th year this season, Blood City Zero features around 25 professional performers, including a zombie towering more than 2 meters (6.6 feet) tall, who appear without warning and even challenge them to games.

At one point, a child found herself playing mukjjippa, the Korean variation of rock-paper-scissors, against a zombie. Elsewhere, another zombie put on a circus act. Others simply wandered around, waiting for the right moment to startle unsuspecting passersby.

The experience is billed as Korea’s first large-scale outdoor immersive live horror performance. Rather than confining the action to a conventional stage, the entire Blood City area becomes one.

Visitors aren’t zombies,  at least, not yet. Instead, they take on the role of White Z agents and can roam through five themed zones, completing missions as they go.

For this year’s edition, Everland collaborated with film director Lee Seok-hoon, whose credits include “Confidential Assignment 2: International” (2022), to give the attraction a more cinematic look and feel. A preshow video directed by Lee plays on a screen at the entrance, setting up the story before visitors enter Blood City.

“With a movie, it takes a long time before it finally reaches audiences, and by then, everything has already been decided, so there’s no way for us to know how people will respond until they see it,” Lee said on Tuesday. “But at a theme park, I can see visitors’ reactions firsthand, and the experience can continue to evolve based on those reactions. That’s different from film, and I think that gives it a unique appeal.”

At 7 p.m., the story culminates in a large-scale flash mob performance that brings the zombie horde and White Z agents together.

Everland is also offering 38 horror-themed items, including skeletal hooded capes. Visitors who want to become part of the action can head to the zombie costume shop and makeup salon to transform themselves into zombies.

Director Lee has one piece of advice for making the most of the experience.

“When they approach you, don’t immediately shy away or simply try to avoid them,” he said. “ Be ready to take them on and it’ll make the experience much more enjoyable.”

Elsewhere around Everland, “Final Lap,” a motorsports-themed event running from Sept. 18 through Oct. 31, will feature two Formula One cars, racing simulators and racing-suit experiences. The Smiley Pumpkin Parade will bring out pumpkin- and skeleton-decorated floats daily, while a new animal character-band performance featuring alpacas and capybaras begins Sept. 24.

Everland’s fall festival runs through Nov. 22.

BY WOO JI-WON [[email protected]]