Panda cub Xiang Xiang to make public debut at Tokyo zoo

Baby panda Xiang Xiang, born from mother panda Shin Shin on June 12, 2017, eats bamboo during a press preview ahead of the public debut at Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, Japan Dec 18, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua Twitter]

A ceremony was held on Monday at Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens to mark the upcoming public debut of giant panda cub Xiang Xiang.

Some 130 special guests, a group of local school children as well as some selected media were invited to watch the panda cub through a glass shield after the ceremony.

"Xiang Xiang's birth coincided with the 45th anniversary of the normalization of the diplomatic relationship between China and Japan. I hope she will grow in good health and become an envoy of peace and friendship," Wang Wan, wife of Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua, said at the ceremony.

"I also hope that children in areas affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake will have the opportunity to meet Xiang Xiang," she said, adding that she hopes the female panda cub will bring joy to those children.

She also presented a gift of a panda figurine made by a Chinese artist to Yutaka Fukuda, head of the Ueno Zoological Gardens.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said that Xiang Xiang has been growing with the loving nurturing by her mother, and the panda cub is "a new treasure of Tokyo."

Some 30 pupils from a nearby primary school celebrated the panda cub's birth with musical performances at the ceremony.

"She is so cute, and we were so lucky to be able to see her before most of the people do," said a pupil after watching Xiang Xiang.

Xiang Xiang, born at the Ueno Zoological Gardens on June 12, was the first giant panda cub born at the zoo since 2012.

Her mother Fairy (Japanese name Shin Shin) and father Billy (Japanese name Ri Ri) have been firm favorites at the zoo since their arrival on loan from China in February 2011, just a few days before the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster.

The birth of Xiang Xiang has been cheered all around Japan, and the name Xiang Xiang, meaning "fragrance" in Chinese language, was picked from some 320,000 suggestions made by the public.

The cuddly panda cub is scheduled to meet the public on Tuesday and will be on display for two-and-a-half hours per day until Jan. 31.

As over 247,000 people have applied to see Xiang Xiang, to prevent crowdedness and to protect the panda cub from being overwhelmed by the pressure, the zoo will limit the maximum number of visitors to 2,000 a day.

The 2,000 people, picked through a lottery, will visit in 400 groups with five people in each group, and each group will only have one to two minutes to watch the panda cub.