A cheeky panda melted the hearts of zoo goers when it casually blew them a kiss with its paw as it sat atop a wooden structure at its enclosure.

The giant panda, named Ye Zi, surprised visitors with the gesture as they stopped by to watch the animal living at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in south-western China’s Sichuan Province.

An unnamed visitor took out their phone to film the panda sitting perched up on a couple of stacked woods when it noticed their presence.

Looking straight at the camera and faced with adoring tourists’ compliments, Ye Zi seems to understand that they are trying to greet it and suddenly blows them a kiss and waves ‘hello’.

It continues staring at the camera with apparent confidence and slightly adjusts its pose almost as if to give zoo goers a better view.

Ye Zi’s warm welcome was seemingly beloved by many, as the footage currently boasts nearly 80,000 likes and over 5,700 comments on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.

One user titled ‘Yingying Sauce’ left a comment saying: “Who can make this into a meme! Hahaha”

Another user titled ‘snowfall’ commented: “So adorable! Ye Zi blows a kiss to the tourist with its cute little paw.”

And user ‘SO SO’ wrote: “Pandas are basically humans, right?”