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Her playful image has become a mascot for San Diego, appearing on T-shirts, advertisements and the phone book cover. Now the Southern California city is saying farewell to Hua Mei, the first US-born panda to survive into adolescence.
Under the agreement that brought her parents to San Diego in 1996 for a 12-year loan, any offspring will be sent to China after turning 3.
Hua Mei, meaning "China and the United States," will celebrate her third birthday on August 21.
The Chinese have not said when they will claim the San Diego Zoo's star attraction, but it may be in early fall. Panda fans who have followed Hua Mei since her birth are heartbroken.
"Bye, Bye Love," read billboards dotting local freeways, showing a seemingly forlorn Hua Mei waving a black paw. Hua Meiniacs, as some fans call themselves, are lining up to videotape farewell messages for television commercials.
The panda's daily routine mainly consists of playing, sleeping and chewing bamboo while being watched by researchers and most of the 3.5 million people who visit the zoo each year.
A recent surprise -- manmade snow blown into her pen one night while she slept in a shelter -- appeared to delight Hua Mei, who turned somersaults, tossed ice chunks with her paws and slid belly-first down a snowy slope again and again.
In China, Hua Mei may go to a panda breeding center in Sichuan Province.
(eastday.com August 5, 2002)
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