Pandas leave for 15-year stay in Belgium
Print Edition
A PAIR of giant pandas left for Belgium yesterday, on lease from their breeding center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
Hundreds of people attended a morning ceremony to see off the pandas from the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas.
They are bound for a research program at Belgium’s Pairi Daiza Zoo, in Brugelette, in the province of Hainaut.
Female panda Hao Hao, and male panda Xing Hui are both 4 years old and will stay in Belgium for the next 15 years.
“I believe that the arrival of the two pandas will boost communication between Belgium and China for the coming 15 years,” said Belgian Ambassador to China Michel Malherbe at the ceremony.
“It’s a perfect symbol of our cooperation in trade, investment, culture, and most importantly, the contact of people to people,” said Malherbe, who granted a special “visa” to the pandas during the ceremony.
The ambassador and Eric Domb, founder and head of Pairi Daiza Zoo, served the pandas with their regular breakfast — bamboo, apples, carrots and bread specially made at the center — before Hao Hao and Xing Hui were loaded into travelling crates adorned with red Chinese-style pavilion roofs.
“With great excitement, I represent the 10 million people of Belgium in welcoming Xing Hui and Hao Hao. I guess that my heartbeat is as fast as theirs,” said Domb.
The two pandas have been isolated in quarantine for over a month, and are in excellent health, Zhang Hemin, head of the breeding center, said.
Currently, 43 panda guests, including cubs born overseas, live in 17 zoos across 12 foreign countries, working together with China in research. The lease term is usually 10 years.
In 1987, two giant pandas visited Belgium for a few months.
This lease is longer than the norm because the optimum reproductive age of giant pandas is between 5 and 19 years, said Zhang.
“We see giant pandas as goodwill ambassadors and hope they will be remembered by the Belgian people and breed successfully in their country,” added Zhang.
Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo has said that he would meet the Chinese “VIPs” at the airport.
“We will give our full support to giant panda protection. And we promise we will take care of them,” Domb said in Chinese.
He added that it was a dream “to hold a farewell party for Xing Hui and Hao Hao’s baby in Belgium.”
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