Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200812/20081219/article_385036.htm
Taiwan gets set to pamper mainland panda pair
Created: 2008-12-19
Author:Ralph Jennin
TAIWAN is rolling out the bamboo carpet for two superstars from the Chinese mainland.
Taipei Zoo has prepared a penthouse-sized outdoor garden decorated with ferns and a footbridge, a bedroom with all-season air conditioning and imported bamboo to welcome Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, the first mainland pandas to be sent to the island.
The pandas, whose names said together mean "unite," are set to reach the zoo compound on Tuesday as a goodwill gift from the mainland.
"Children think they're cute, plump and should be conserved," said Tsai Hsin-hua, a teacher who escorted 150 screaming fourth-graders through the panda zone yesterday as part of a zoo demonstration to try to predict how crowds will behave around the bears.
In a sign of the times, the zoo has done everything for the animal ambassadors. It spent NT$300 million (US$9.24 million) on the enclosure and a four-story panda theme exhibition next door and plans to spend about NT$10 million a year on upkeep. The pair will be attended by some 35 zoo staff, as well as numerous other volunteers.
To keep the pandas calm while giving as many people as possible a chance to see them, the zoo will ask visitors to make sure no one lingers by the cage for more than a couple of seconds or uses camera flashes. About 1,400 people passed the empty enclosure during the demo.
"Today cooperation was pretty good, and if everyone keeps moving like that we can get 30,000 people through per day," Eric Tsao, a zoo curator and one of 35 panda staffers, said yesterday.
Taiwan will donate a pair of rare deer and a pair of rare goats to the mainland in exchange.
Taipei Zoo has prepared a penthouse-sized outdoor garden decorated with ferns and a footbridge, a bedroom with all-season air conditioning and imported bamboo to welcome Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, the first mainland pandas to be sent to the island.
The pandas, whose names said together mean "unite," are set to reach the zoo compound on Tuesday as a goodwill gift from the mainland.
"Children think they're cute, plump and should be conserved," said Tsai Hsin-hua, a teacher who escorted 150 screaming fourth-graders through the panda zone yesterday as part of a zoo demonstration to try to predict how crowds will behave around the bears.
In a sign of the times, the zoo has done everything for the animal ambassadors. It spent NT$300 million (US$9.24 million) on the enclosure and a four-story panda theme exhibition next door and plans to spend about NT$10 million a year on upkeep. The pair will be attended by some 35 zoo staff, as well as numerous other volunteers.
To keep the pandas calm while giving as many people as possible a chance to see them, the zoo will ask visitors to make sure no one lingers by the cage for more than a couple of seconds or uses camera flashes. About 1,400 people passed the empty enclosure during the demo.
"Today cooperation was pretty good, and if everyone keeps moving like that we can get 30,000 people through per day," Eric Tsao, a zoo curator and one of 35 panda staffers, said yesterday.
Taiwan will donate a pair of rare deer and a pair of rare goats to the mainland in exchange.
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