Goodwill pandas finally arrive

Both were in perfect condition, under the meticulous care of a large team of experts from China and Taiwan.

The pair of endangered but extremely popular animals arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at 5:04 p.m. aboard an EVA Airways jumbo jet from Chengdu in Sichuan province.

Shortly after landing, the pandas were received like visiting dignitaries. They were transported to the Taipei City Zoo in an air-conditioned vehicle, traffic-free, escorted by a police motorcade and jumping all red lights.

They settled into their NT$300 million new home at the huge hillside zoo in Muzha District at around 7:45 p.m.

With a month of quarantine ahead for Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, the new celebrities of Taipei City are expected to make public debut on Jan. 25, just in time for the Chinese New Year holidays. Yang Hsiao-tung, director of Taipei City’s Department of Information and Tourism, told reporters that the pandas slept through almost the entire flight.

“The pandas behaved very well during the trip”, said Yang, adding that their well-being was monitored by experts every minute of the way.

Mayor Hau Lung-bin expects six million visitors at the zoo a year as a result of the pandas.

The zoo has prepared an outdoor enclosure decorated with ferns and a footbridge, a sleeping area with all-season air conditioning and bamboo to welcome the two pandas.

Constructed with a sponsorship by the Shin Kong Group, the zoo’s new display facility is considered by many experts as a three-storey, “six-star” mansion. Taipei’s zoo is pulling out all the stops to make the pandas feel at home and hopes the pair will eventually reproduce.

A storage room is set aside especially to deposit fresh bamboo — which is the staple food for the pandas in their natural habitat.

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