A mountain in the middle of the journey

Asian Highlands is the park’s contemplative breath. Where African Savannah delivers crowds and movement, this zone trades scale for altitude and stillness. Guests climb gently — the Mountain Path rises through pine and birch, opens onto the Highland Bridge, then settles into terraced bamboo gardens framed by mountain ash and rhododendron.

Four flagship species, four microclimates

The deck names four signature species — giant pandas, red pandas, snow leopards, and cranes — and the master plan stages each in its own microclimate. Bamboo terraces for the giant pandas. A canopy-level treetop walk for the red panda herd. A rocky ridge with a glass tunnel for the snow leopards. A reflecting wetland for the red-crowned and white-naped cranes. The result is four very different encounters within a fifteen-minute loop.

Designed around three guest moments

The deck’s three verbs for this zone — Explore, Conserve, Connect — drive the design:

• Explore — discover amazing wildlife from a quiet, elevated vantage, framed by switchback trails and a suspension bridge that opens three sightlines at once.
• Conserve — protect species and habitats through active partnership with Himalayan and East Asian field programs, interpreted inside the Asian Highlands Center.
• Connect — invite engaging visitors with culture, through education and the Tea Garden Court — the zone’s social heart and its primary rest stop.

Why this zone balances the park

Asian Highlands is intentionally a high-value, lower-volume zone. The reservation-only Quiet Viewing Area, the tea-garden pacing, and the calm mountain palette let the park breathe between the bigger spectacle zones — a deliberate counterweight that makes the louder lands land harder.