July 16, 2026
Ocean Park (Hong Kong) is throwing a summer-long birthday party for its giant pandas. All six were born in June or August, and the twins, Jia Jia and De De, turn two on August 15. The Pandastic Summer Birthday Celebration runs June 26 through August 31, 2026, and covers the park in decorations, performances, water play, a lucky draw, and panda-themed food and merchandise. The twins’ parents, Ying Ying and Le Le, were also born in August, and An An and Ke Ke turned seven in June.
This is a brilliant way to use what the park already has and double down on its popular exhibit. The pandas are the draw, and the birthdays give guests a reason to come back and see them again before summer ends. The celebration also reinforces the “Panda Friends,” the park’s existing cartoon characters based on the six pandas, which appear throughout the event and on the merchandise.
The Birthday Celebration
The birthday theme starts at the gate. The main entrance holds a countdown zone with a giant cake installation and a family countdown calendar, and at Waterfront Plaza, a 5-meter Giant Panda Birthday Bun Tower rises in piles of pink birthday buns, a traditional Hong Kong birthday touch, with all six Panda Friends climbing toward the top. From there, the characters spread through the park. More than 60 Panda Friends sculptures line the Eco-Herbal Trail, and guests who collect birthday stamps at six locations complete a limited-edition birthday card along the way.
The real pandas get their moment too. The Pandastic Happy Moments exhibit replays footage of the twins growing up and the other four settling into the park, and a Giant Panda Fan Zone gives the panda fandom a place to meet and trade handmade crafts and keepsakes.
The entertainment carries the same characters. Giant inflatable Panda Friends roam the park, performance groups play the Pawsome Summer Party on August 8, 15, and 16, and the Gala of Lights night show runs a birthday edition with panda projections over Aqua City Lagoon. Even the water play outside Applause Pavilion, a mega water bucket, water curtains, and water bomb fights, is themed as the Panda Friends Splashy Birthday Camp. The restaurants join in with Panda Twins Mini Burgers, a Panda Snack Platter, birthday cakes, and snow cones for the heat.
A Reason to Come Back
In addition to the birthday celebrations, Ocean Park is incentivizing repeat visitation through the “Summer Joy Lucky Draw.” Guests register once online, and every park visit from July 3 through August 31 earns one entry, limited to one per day, into a drawing with more than 1,000 prizes, most of them panda-themed, topped by a MAXUS MIFA 7 PLUS electric MPV. The one-entry-per-visit rule is the mechanism. A guest who wants more chances has to come back, and every return trip is another day with the pandas.
Panda Friends as IP
The characters do not stay inside the event. The Panda Friends Summer Collection includes a Giant Panda Plush Keychain Blind Box and a product line that redraws the twins as “Lemon Twins,” a Panda Friends Hong Kong Food Collection pairs the characters with classic Hong Kong street food, and Panda Friends prizes arrive at game booths, claw machines, and penny press machines starting mid-July.
Most of the IP stories I cover run the other direction, with venues licensing someone else’s characters. Aside from a crossover series with the Korean characters Maltese and Retriever at the game booths, everything here is Ocean Park’s own. The park built characters from animals it already houses, and every visit during the birthday season reinforces them. The park has also said a documentary about the twin cubs is in development, per the South China Morning Post, which takes the same animals from the park attraction to the screen.
Full details are on Ocean Park’s event page.
