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Chinese pandas ready for long-awaited trip to Taiwan
2008-12-21
TAIPEI (AFP) - Two giant pandas will make their long-anticipated and highly-scrutinised trip from China to Taiwan this week, sealing a year of blossoming diplomatic ties between the two arch rivals. The relocation of the four-year-old pair, whose names together symbolise unity, comes amid hopes on both sides that the goodwill gesture will be matched by an increased willingness to work towards warmer cross-strait relations. A delegation of Taiwanese officials, animal experts and journalists are to fly to the pandas' home in southwest China's Sichuan province on Monday and return to Taiwan with them the following day. The two pandas, named "Tuan Tuan" and "Yuan Yuan," are at a research centre in Ya'an, where they have lived since being evacuated from the Wolong reserve after a massive earthquake damaged the centre in May. "Tuanyuan" -- a combination of the characters making up the two pandas' names -- means "reunion" or "unity" in Chinese. The pandas will travel from Ya'an to the provincial capital Chengdu where authorities will see them off in a ceremony before they board a chartered jet, heading straight for their new home in Taipei. Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin has hailed the pair's arrival as "a major step in the development of cross-strait ties", saying he expects the pandas to attract more than six million visitors annually to the city's zoo. The city will hold a welcoming ceremony for the pandas on Wednesday, even though the star attractions will not be on show -- instead starting a 30-day quarantine period, said Hau's spokesman Yang Hsiao-tung. The bears are expected to be unveiled to the public during the Lunar New Year holidays starting January 25, if they complete the quarantine with a clean bill of health, he said. The city government has invested around 10 million US dollars in a new 1,200-square-metre (13,000-square-foot) enclosure for the bears and has sent two keepers to Sichuan for training. The pandas were earmarked as goodwill ambassadors to Taiwan in 2006 but their arrival was only made possible after Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou took office earlier this year. Ma was mayor of Taipei when China made the panda offer during a historic visit to the mainland by Taiwan's then opposition leader Lien Chan in 2005. Former president Chen Shui-bian of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party banned the import of pandas, accusing Beijing of trying to win favour with the Taiwanese people through so-called "panda diplomacy." His party has labeled the pandas' arrival a "propaganda show." The island's conservation groups have also opposed bringing the pandas to Taipei zoo, saying the animals should be allowed to remain in their natural habitat. "We regret that the authorities decided to bring the pandas here despite our protests, for the sake of politics," said Chen Yu-min, director of the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan. Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing still considers the island to be part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. China, which has used panda diplomacy worldwide since the days of the Cold War, has reportedly made at least three other attempts to give pandas to Taiwan -- none through official channels. China normally demands enormous fees for its pandas, but Beijing has waived any charges for Taiwan. Chinese experts say there are nearly 1,600 pandas living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Another 200 or so are being raised in captivity in China.
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