Stars panda to adoring crowd

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-6-6  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

EIGHT "Olympic Pandas" nominated by Internet users to add cheer to the Games this summer met the public yesterday morning at Beijing Zoo.

The display featuring the endangered animals was launched in a ceremony which coincided the start of a donation project to rebuild the damaged panda habitat in quake-stricken Sichuan Province.

Enthusiastic visitors queued to buy tickets to the renovated panda hall and took pictures from outside the newly expanded glass enclosure, where wooden toy trees, a mural and swimming pools create a homy environment. The pandas live in three pens held at a constant temperature, similar to their natural habitat.

A worker at the panda hall said the number of visitors had risen by more than 50 percent in the morning with most of them coming to see the eight new pandas.

Zoo officials said they would consider controlling visitor numbers if the hall became too crowded.

"I have been waiting for them to come out for about two hours," said a little girl on her father's shoulder, with a panda-print balloon in hand, and behind crowds of visitors and photographers who burst into cheers as the eight pandas appeared in the enclosure.

"I like Huanhuan best out of the eight because it looks like Jingjing, the Fuwa Panda," she added, referring to one of the official mascots of the Beijing Olympic Games.

"They are lovely," said an American tourist Terry Swingler who was busy choosing a panda T-shirt with his wife. "We have seen one, but we've never seen so many together."

The two-year-old cubs, flown from Sichuan last month, were expected to attract 6 million domestic and foreign tourists during their six-month show in the capital.

They were selected from among 16 candidates at the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Wolong Town, only 30 kilometers from the epicenter of the devastating quake.

Experts with the center said the pandas had recovered from their quake trauma and were all in good condition.

"We always pat them gently, talk with them and maintain eye contact to make it easier for them to adapt to a new home," said Wu Daifu, one of four center keepers who accompanied the pandas to Beijing.