Panda pair land after taking a 9-hour flight in their stride
Print Edition
GIANT pandas Wu Wen and Xing Ya arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam on Wednesday ahead of their 15-year stay in a Dutch zoo, making the Netherlands the seventh European country to host the endangered animals.
The KLM special cargo flight transporting the pandas landed around 7:30pm local time. When the cages were unloaded, hundreds of people watching a live broadcast in a nearby hall erupted into applause.
Female Wu Wen, the name translates as Beautiful Powerful Cloud, and male Xing Ya (Elegant Star) both took tentative steps and then strolled around in their tailor-made cages.
“It’s a small step for Wu Wen and Xing Ya, but a big step for the history of Sino-Dutch relations,” said Wu Ken, Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands.
The pandas’ appearance delighted watching children, with some screaming with excitement while others held their breath in awe.
There are some 2,000 giant pandas around the world but most live in captivity in China.
Before Wu Wen and Xing Ya traveled to the Netherlands, China had only agreed to carry out joint research on pandas with 12 countries, among which six in Europe. They are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Spain and Belgium.
The arrival of Wu Wen and Xing Ya in the Netherlands “fully proves the high level of our bilateral relations which are now at their best time,” Wu Ken said.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the Netherlands. “This significant ‘panda moment’ marks the beginning of a new chapter in our relations,” he said.
“What a beautiful day. What a special moment,” said Ronald van Roeden, deputy secretary-general at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He recalled many years of efforts by the Netherlands to take part in the cooperation project for the protection of the giant panda. Ouwehands Zoo in the center of the country had been bidding to host pandas since 2000. During a state visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima to China in October 2015, an agreement was finally signed.
Van Roeden said the pandas were a symbolic expression of the excellent status of Dutch-Chinese relations, “And now they are here, finally! And we are proud and unbelievably happy with their arrival to the Netherlands,” he said.
Soon after their arrival, Wu Wen and Xing Ya were heading to the zoo in Rhenen, where a special compound is waiting for them.
The pandas are expected to be given some 50 kilograms of bamboo a day, to be provided by a local grower who also supplies bamboo for pandas in Vienna and Edinburgh.
The zoo is to launch an education program on endangered species and take part in research projects on panda breeding in collaboration with Wageningen University.
Zoo visitors will have to be patient as the pandas will be in quarantine for up to six weeks before going on show.
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