Overview

The Japanese Emperor has been given a fantastic gift--a Chinese Giant Panda! But all this thing does is tear up the garden and eat bamboo. To keep the emperor's garden pristine, you'll have to direct the gardener, irrigate the plots, and lure the panda into eating the right bamboo shoots. And then there's the weather to deal with. The player who manages the garden best wins!

Gameplay

Everything starts with the garden's central pond. The gardener and panda are sitting here, waiting for you to expand the area. Each player takes turns adding plots to the garden, moving the gardener and panda around, and irrigating plots. This is all to fulfill objectives, which earn you points. The first player to complete nine objectives invokes the end of the game. At that point, every other player gets one more turn. The points for each player's completed objectives are summed up. The one with the most is the winner.

Turns

Each turn consists of 2 steps:

Weather

First, the weather die is rolled (except in the player's first turn) to determine that turn's weather. Weather has random effects at the start of the player's turn. Those effects are:

Weather	Symbol	Description
Sun		Take a third action
Rain		Grow 1 bamboo on any irrigated plot
Wind		May take two identical actions this turn
Storm		Move panda to any plot where it eats a bamboo as normal
Clouds		Add an improvement to a plot without one. If no improvements are available, you may choose another type of weather.
Question Mark	--	Choose any weather type

Fulfilling the weather effects is always optional.

Actions

After weather is determined, the player takes two actions. They cannot be the same action (unless the weather is "wind").

Available Actions

Name	Symbol	Description
Plots		Draw 3 plot tiles. Choose one to place adjacent to the pond or 2 other existing plots. (There are 26 plots in total.)
Irrigation		Place an irrigation channel between two garden plots.
Gardener		Move the gardener any number of tiles in a straight line. Bamboo will grow on it and any adjacent irrigated tiles of the same color.
Panda		Move the panda any number of tiles in a straight line. The panda eats one section of bamboo, which gets added to your reserve.
Objective		Take an objective card from one of the three categories (plot, panda, gardener). If the objective is already reflected in the garden's current state, it is discarded. You may choose another objective. (This is the only situation where an action can be cancelled and a different action can be taken.)

Objectives

A player may claim completed objectives any time during their turn. There are three kinds:

• Plot: Fulfilled if there is a plot configuration as shown (color and shape). All plots must be irrigated.
• Panda: Fulfilled if you have bamboo units of the matching color. These are returned to the reserve after the objective is completed.
• Gardener: Fulfilled if the gardener is on any plot with the matching improvements and bamboo of the given height.

You can have no more than five objective cards at a time.

If completing a gardener objective, the gardener must be on the plot (or one of the plots) that fulfills the objective.

For plot objectives, the plots can be at any angle as long as the configuration matches (i.e., the plot can be sideways or upside down but not flipped around/mirrored).

Plots and Irrigation

When you take the gardener action, move the gardener in a straight line to any plot. Bamboo will grow on it and adjacent tiles of the same color, but only if they are irrigated. A plot is irrigated if it has the watershed improvement or one of its sides is covered by an irrigation channel (not a corner). The first time a plot is irrigated, bamboo grows.

Irrigation channels must always connect back to the central pond either directly or via previous irrigation channels. A plot with a watershed improvement is considered automatically irrigated for plot and gardening purposes, but not for placing channels.

Note: You could put an irrigation channel between a garden plot and the pond itself, but this would be a wasted move as any plot adjacent to the pond has irrigation built-in.

Growing Bamboo

There are two ways in which bamboo can grow. One is using the gardener action to move him to a plot. Bamboo will grow on it and adjacent tiles of the same color if they are irrigated. Another way is by "rain" weather. If the plot has a fertilizer improvement, the bamboo stalk will grow 2 taller with either action. Maximum height is 4.

Improvements

Some tiles start with improvements. Others are blank and can have improvements added with "clouds" weather. A plot can only ever have one improvement on it.

Caption text

Name	Symbol	Description
Fertilizer		When bamboo grows here for any reason, it grows two units instead of one.
Watershed		A plot with this improvement is irrigated. Note that it cannot be used as a source for an irrigation channel.
Enclosure		The panda can stop at or pass through this plot, but cannot eat any bamboo here.

Completing Objectives and game end

When a player completes the number of objectives relative to the # of players, the game end is triggered.

• 2 players: 9 objectives
• 3 players: 8 objectives
• 4 players: 7 objectives

The first player to complete the required number of objectives receives the Emperor card (worth 2 bonus points). All other players get a final turn to complete their objectives. Highest score wins. On ties, the player with the most points for panda objectives wins.

Variants

Rule Differences Between First and Second Edition