- Title: CHINA : Shanghai showcases ten giant pandas ahead of World Expo 2010
- Date: 22nd January 2010
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 27-YEAR-OLD LI XINGFA, CARRYING HER SEVEN-MONTH-OLD BABY, SAYING: "I am happy to see all these pandas since they have been gathered here in conjunction with the World Expo. If people from all over the world come to see them, I would also feel very honoured."
- Embargoed: 6th February 2010 12:00
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- Topics: Environment / Natural World
- Reuters ID: LVAC7Q7VS6JBVIMPT1K4GV2FAVW8
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- Story Text: Shanghai presents ten giant pandas to the public ahead of the city's 100-day countdown to the World Expo 2010.
Ten giant pandas were officially unveiled to the Shanghai public on Wednesday (January 20) as part of the run-up to the city's hosting of the World Expo in May this year.
The ten pandas had arrived in Shanghai earlier this month from southwestern Sichuan province and were left in quarantine to adapt to their new living environments.
Zoo staff said the pandas had adjusted well to living in a newly renovated panda enclosure after two weeks of quarantine.
"When they were here for the first two days, I observed that they did not rest much. They were always playing and it might be because they were still adapting to a new environment. Also, this enclosure had just been recently renovated so there might be some sort of smell. So they did not have much rest in the daytime back then, but gradually they managed to adapt," said Chen Lihua, chief of the Shanghai zoo's breeding department.
The pandas were showcased ahead of the 100-day countdown to the Shanghai World Expo which begins on Thursday (January 21).
They will be part of the entire Expo extravaganza which will run from May 1 to October 31 this year.
The young pandas were born more than a year ago after the deadly May 12 earthquake. The group consists of six females and four male pandas from the Ya'an Panda Reserve in Sichuan.
Many Shanghai residents came with their families to see the pandas on the first day of their unveiling at the Shanghai zoo.
"Even though pandas are unique to China, an exhibition of such a large scale is still a first for Shanghai. So for Shanghai residents like us, it is still something very new. So my family came here today to catch it early and see the pandas before the start of the World Expo," said 31-year-old Zhang Haichen.
"I am happy to see all these pandas since they have been gathered here in conjunction with the World Expo. If people from all over the world come to see them, I would also feel very honoured," said another visitor, 27-year-old Li Xingfa.
The Giant Panda is one of the world's most endangered species and is found wild only in China.
An estimated 1,600 wild pandas live in nature reserves in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.
China keeps about 210 in captivity, 91 of which are currently living in Ya'an.
Beijing often sends pairs of pandas as gifts to other countries as a diplomatic move to improve or ease relations and gain domestic and foreign attention. The practise is also known as "panda diplomacy and politics".
China has presented the animals to countries including Japan, the United States and the former Soviet Union since 1957.
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