US GIANT PANDAS RECEIVE CHINESE VISITORS

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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-07/24/content_647530.htm

China delegation visits giant pandas in Zoo Atlanta

By Huang Zhiling (Chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2006-07-24 08:27

 

Some 500 people gathered together here Saturday morning in Zoo Atlanta to

welcome the arrival of a Chinese delegation which came specially to see the

two giant pandas in the zoo.

 

The 11-member delegation, which consists of government officials, a panda

researcher, journalists and a TV production crew, was from Chengdu, capital

of Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

 

" We came here to visit Lun Lun and Yang Yang whose parents live in the

Chinese city with 10 million people and 80 percent of the world's giant

pandas, " said Song Minwen, chief of the delegation, in the ceremony marking

the arrival of the Chinese group

 

Both pandas arrived in Zoo Atlanta on a 10-year loan from the Chinese

Government in 1999. " Since then, they have brought great joy to locals,

children in particular, " said Blythe Randolf, vice-president of Zoo Atlanta,

in an interview with chinadaily.com.cn.

 

Jennifer Mullins, associate director of the Office of Student Financial

Planning and Services in the Atlanta-based Georgia Institute of Technology,

visits Zoo Atlanta with her 2.5-year-old daughter Abbey Headerson once in a

month to see pandas and elephants.

 

Mullins, who happened to meet the Chinese delegation, said that she had

Chinese students who had told her much about pandas, and that she knew that

Chengdu was the habitat of pandas.

 

Chengdu, which is home to the world's only giant panda research and breeding

centre built in a large city, is home to 48 of the world's existing 1,000

pandas.

 

The get-together to welcome the Chinese delegation was another grand

ceremony in Zoo Atlanta after the arrival of both pandas seven years ago,

Randolf said.

 

In less than one hour, 500 picture albums of Chengdu, 500 badges of the

giant panda, 400 photos of the giant pandas and 150 toys of the giant panda

were taken away by some 1,000 visitors to the zoo.

 

Claire McLeveighn, director of External Affairs and International Relations

of the city of Atlanta, said that the pandas had become the pride of her

city with a population of nearly 5 million. They had built a bridge helping

people in Atlanta and Chengdu to understand different cultures.

 

Giant pandas had created chances for both cities to co-operate in different

fields, said McLeveighn who hoped a panda cultural week would be held

simultaneously in both cities next year.

 

Zoo Atlanta was the second stop on an 11-city world tour for the Chinese

delegation filming a panda TV documentary and promoting the animal's

" hometown " Chengdu. The first stop was Memphis, Tennessee in the United

States.

 

MEMPHIS -- Le Le, a male panda in the Memphis Zoo in this state of

Tennessee, the United States, became a star on Tuesday local time, as it

turned eight.

 

Throngs of people from different parts of the United States visited it in

the zoo with a history of 100 years. I had travelled a long distance to see

the cuddly bear, said Marcie Gitlin, a middle-aged art designer from New

York.

 

Travelling with her family, Gitlin told chinadaily.com.cn that her

nine-year-old daughter had dreamed of seeing pandas for quite for a long

time.

 

Both my daughter and I felt lucky to meet people from Chengdu, the habitat

of the giant panda today in the zoo, and learned a lot about the panda, she

said.

 

A delegation of 11 people from Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan

Province, arrived in the United States on Monday afternoon to start a 16-day

panda tour.

 

The visit, whose first stop is Memphis, is aimed at arousing more people's

concern for the endangered animal species and making more people know

Chengdu, said Song Minwen.

 

The giant panda has been around for about 3 million years in the world. Many

animals of its era have long perished.

 

But due to human activities and the degeneration of the environment, the

number of habitats of the giant panda has been on the decline. There are

only some 1,000 wild pandas in the world. About 85 per cent of them live in

mountainous areas in Sichuan.

 

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, is home to the world's only giant panda

breeding and research base built in a large city. There are 48 pandas in the

base.

 

While celebrating Le Le's birthday in the Memphis Zoo, members of the

Chengdu delegation introduced the history of the giant panda, Chengdu's

efforts in protecting the endangered species and sent gifts with the panda

as the logon to visitors to the zoo.