Chengdu claims first birth of panda this year

Lili, a giant panda, gave birth to a male baby panda at 11:20 pm local time on July 28 in Chengdu's Giant Panda Research and Breeding Base. This is the first panda born in Chengdu this year.

Lili was born in September 1992, and she has given birth four times previously to a total of six babies – four of which are alive today.

In April, Lili and a male panda named Yongyong fell in love, succeeding in natural mating six times. On July 6, she began to show obvious prenatal signs, which include eating less. In spite of its good ingestion of bamboo, Lili had not eaten wowotou (a kind of steamed corn bread in China that used to be her main food) for 23 days. She had seldom fed herself in the last three days before giving birth.

At 9:00pm on July 28, Lili's water broke. After seven hours of struggle and pain, the baby was born. Coincidentally, July 28 is the first day of 2012 London Olympic Games, and the birth of the baby panda is also seen as the wish of joy and good fortune from Chengdu for this year's events.

The newborn panda weighs 162 grams. Experts say, both the mother and the baby are in quite good health.