Two giant pandas made a trip from Sichuan Province, China, to their new home in Taiwan yesterday. Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓), both four years old, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5:02pm.
The pandas, whose Chinese names, when put together, mean “to reunite,” were offered to former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) during his visit to China in May, 2005.
The pair were selected from 23 panda cubs early in 2006 after an eight-month process. China claimed the names were decided by a public poll that received more than 100 million votes from the Chinese people.
EVA Air (EVA,長榮航空) decorated the cabin of the plane used for yesterday’s charter flight with posters of pandas. Meals offered on board also were designed in patterns of pandas.
Officials from the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health and Inspection and Quarantine boarded the aircraft after it landed at the airport and conducted a preliminary inspection.
While some of the officials reviewed documents, others inspected the pandas and bamboo brought from China. Chinese caretakers carried three cases of bamboo, each weighing 75kg.
“Our inspectors took [the pandas’] temperature and inspected their eyes and excrement,” said Shen Guo-san (沈國三), director of the bureau’s Hsinchu office.
The two pandas were then transported to Taipei City Zoo in a temperature-controlled truck, escorted by police cars. They reached their new home at around 7:30pm.
Upon arrival, the bamboo was unloaded, washed and used to line a quarantine cell for the animals.
Tuan Tuan, the male panda, entered the cell following a trail of sliced apples, which handlers said was his favorite food.
“They are shy in an unfamiliar environment,” said the zoo’s top veterinarian, Jason Chin (金仕謙). In addition to 6kg of imported bamboo, another 6kg of Taiwanese bamboo was put in the cell, Chin said.
A few minutes later, Yuan Yuan, a female, joined her partner and entered the cell. The pair paced back and forth for more than 30 minutes, after which Yuan Yuan began munching on a piece of apple and both pandas began eating the Taiwanese bamboo.
The animals will kept in quarantine for at least 30 days before being displayed to the public, Chin said.
“If everything — including the health examination and diet evaluation — goes well, the animals will have their last day of quarantine on the 23rd of next month,” he said.
In the meantime, a camera will be kept in the cell to provide a video feed so the public can view the pandas, he said.
“Every day at noon, a video [with selected footage] from the pandas’ previous day will be uploaded onto the zoo’s Web site,” he said.
When asked when the pair might produce their first cub, Chin said that Yuan Yuan had been in heat last year, but “the zoo will wait for Tuan-tuan to become sexually mature in the next two years before letting the pair mate.”
Responding to reporters’ questions on whether the pandas’ names would be changed, Chin said: “We respect these individuals, who have been called these names for four to five years. They have also learned to respond to these names ... At the moment, there are no plans to change their names.”
The pandas were taken from their enclosures at the Ya’an breeding center in Sichuan Province before dawn yesterday.
The keepers led the pandas into metal crates, locked them and handed them bamboo sprouts as a farewell gift.
Once the animals had been loaded onto a truck, children dressed as pandas performed a dance in a small ceremony bidding farewell to the pandas.
“I’m sad to see the pandas go, but I’m happy that Taiwanese children can experience the cute animals,” said Guo Jie, an 18-year-old student at a technical college.
The pandas were transported to Chengdu to board a Taipei-bound jet along with some 20 Chinese animal experts and their two original keepers, who will stay in Taiwan for two months.
Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中), deputy director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, had said before the pandas’ departure: “Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan will sow the seeds of peace, solidarity and friendship on Taiwan’s soil.”
Also See: PANDA DIPLOMACY: ANALYSIS: Pandas part of Beijing’s ‘internalization’ plan
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary