China sends two giant pandas to Germany

BEIJING: Two giant pandas in China were on Saturday sent to Germany for a 15-year research mission from their home in southwest Sichuan Province.

Meng Meng and Jiao Qing took a Lufthansa cargo flight from their home in Chengdu, for a 12-hour flight to Berlin this morning.

The plane took off at 9:35 am (local time), taking the pandas and 1,000 kilogrammes of bamboo, apple and a large number of biscuits.


They were accompanied with two keepers from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and a senior vet from Berlin Zoo.

Four-year-old female panda Meng Meng and seven-year-old male panda Jiao Qing were in good health before the flight. Meng Meng is not yet adult panda. She is expected to be mated with Jiao Qing, after she turns six years old, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany. The pandas were sent as envoys of China-Germany friendship. They will live in Berlin Zoo for the next 15 years.

China has gifted three pandas to Germany since the early 1980s. Bao Bao and Tian Tian were the first panda couple in Berlin Zoo, though Tian Tian died in 1982.

Bao Bao remained alone until Yan Yan was loaned to the zoo in 1995 to breed. However, breeding attempts were unsuccessful despite trying artificial insemination seven times.

Thirty-four-year-old Bao Bao died in Berlin in 2012, as the oldest male panda in the world.