Ajie and Yajun Turn 11

On August 29th, Ningbo Wildlife Park held a birthday party for their two giant pandas because they turned 11. The keepers marked the day with fresh bamboo and seasonal fruit as pandas' cake made for the occasion, and visitors spent the morning watching the sisters eat all of it.

Ajie, about 290 pounds, is the calm one; her idea of a big day is finding a comfortable spot and staying on it. Yajun, about 240 pounds, is the live wire — first to the food, first to explore anything new. Both were born in Sichuan in 2015 and have lived in Ningbo since 2018. 

The shop in their backyard

We're not watching from far away. Panda Incense has run a physical shop inside the park since March 2025, a short walk from the panda house. The keepers who care for Ajie and Yajun are the people we see at work every week.

$1 from every box of Piqiu

Every box of Piqiu incense you buy sends $1 to the park, where it pays for fresh bamboo and the daily cost of feeding the two sisters — between them, more than 30,000 pounds of bamboo a year. The running total is public: the Bamboo Fund

What their bamboo becomes

Here's the part people don't believe at first, so we'll say it plainly. A giant panda eats dozens of pounds of bamboo a day and absorbs only the nutrients. The fiber passes through nearly intact — pandas famously leave droppings that smell faintly of fresh bamboo, not of anything else.

That fiber is a clean, plant-based material, and it is the base of our Piqiu incense. If you want the full process, step by step, it's here: panda bamboo fiber.

If you're ever in Ningbo

The park is open to the public, our shop is inside it, and the birthday girls are usually eating. Bring an afternoon.