Fanfare surrounds pandas' arrival

Bears: Rare species to enhance understanding

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Photo collection of panda Xing Hui

Photo collection of panda Hao Hao

Leading Chinese panda experts will also travel to Belgium.

Tang Chunxiang, an experienced veterinarian and assistant to the director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, said: "Pandas have a strong ability to adapt to the new environment. Xing Hui and Hao Hao will live well and possibly have their cubs during their 15-year stay."

Many people have concerns about the different diet in a foreign land.

"Bamboo is available in the Netherlands, France and Germany," Tang explained.

"European bamboo species are different from those in China. But some are more nutritious than Chinese species."

Tang and Wu Daifu, one of the CCRCGP's best panda keepers, will accompany the panda pair to Belgium. Tang will stay in the Pairi Daiza Zoo for about two months, and Wu will remain for half a year to ensure they adapt.

Tang, who joined the CCRCGP a year after its establishment in 1981, has sent many cuddly bears to foreign countries. On his first trip, he accompanied a panda pair to Singapore for a 100-day exhibition to celebrate the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Singapore in 1990.

Xing Hui and Hao Hao are the equivalent of 12 years old in a human lifespan.

"They will reach sexual maturity at age 7 and may give birth to cubs," Tang said.

The CCRCGP has established panda research ties with 11 zoos in nine countries - the United States, England, Austria, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Belgium.

CCRCGP director Zhang Hemin said 22 pandas from his center have lived overseas and have given birth to 19 cubs. Of those, 12 cubs survived and nine were sent to the center.

Currently, 43 Chinese panda "guests", including their cubs born overseas, live in 17 zoos across 12 countries that have panda research cooperation programs with China. Usually, the lease is 10 years.

Pandas survive solely in six mountainous ranges within Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. The ranges are the Qinling, Minshan, Qionglai, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling and Liangshan mountains.

The Chinese government has built 64 nature reserves in the three provinces. These cover 60 percent of pandas' natural habitat and host 70 percent of the wild population, said Liu Yawen, deputy director of the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Management in the State Forestry Administration.

Contact the writers through tuoyannan@chinadaily.com.cn.