Giant panda Yuan Xin plays at the Dujiangyan base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. (Photo: China News Service/Zhang Lang)
A pair of Chinese giant pandas arrived in South Korea Thursday on a 15-year lease, marking the first time in 22 years that the endangered bear species enters the South Korean territory for joint research purpose.
Yuan Xin, a three-year-old male, and Hua Ni, a two-year-old female, arrived at the Incheon International Airport at around 2:20 p.m. local time (0520GMT) by a special flight of South Korea's main flagship carrier Korean Air from China's southwestern city of Chengdu.
Panda's lease was put on one of agendas during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to South Korea in July 2014 when Xi agreed with his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye to cooperate in panda research. The lease was confirmed during Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Seoul last year.
China had previously loaned a pair of pandas to South Korea in 1994, but they were returned back to their home country in 1998 when Seoul suffered from the Asian foreign exchange crisis.
To welcome the pair's arrival in their new home, a celebratory event was held at the airport. The event was attended by hundreds of journalists and officials from both countries, including Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Qiu Guohong, South Korea's vice environment minister Jeong Yeon-man and ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Woo-hyun.
The pair of pandas will live in the 3,300-square-meter Panda World at Everland, South Korea's largest theme park about 40 km from capital Seoul.
The panda species is under threat of extinction but gain great popularity for lovely looks and rarity in the world.
Joint research will be conducted by Everland and China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP), which described Yuan Xin as being lively and outgoing and Hua Ni as having a slightly introverted and docile disposition.
Everland has installed thermostatic and humidity equipment and planted familiar trees in Panda World to simulate the environment in Sichuan.
The pair will be unveiled to the public from April after a one-month period of adjustment to new environment. During the transitional period, they will be fed with Sichuan bamboo taken from the region.
The panda pair are expected to have offspring at their new home. Male pandas usually become sexually mature one year later than females.
CCRCGP, which heads China's international panda research and cooperation program, has sent 32 pandas to 12 zoos and parks in 10 countries and regions since the 1990s. The 32 pandas had 22 cubs overseas, but only 15 have survived. So far, 10 of the 15 panda cubs born overseas have returned to China.
