Six pandas from China's quake-ravaged Sichuan Province made their debut Friday at the Beijing Zoo, the first day of China's three-day Labor Day holiday.
Hua Ao, Jin Yi, Wen Yu, Xiang Ge, Shui Ling and Qing Feng arrived Wednesday from the China Giant Panda Research Center in Ya'an City for a year-long visit. They are part of the celebration of New China's 60th founding anniversary in October.
The cuddly young bears, three males and three females all born in 2007, amused the crowd by frolicking on a slide in their enclosure and tucking into fresh bamboo leaves.
"My daughter loves pandas more than any other animals," said a Beijing office worker surnamed An, who rode the bus for an hour to bring her 8-year-old daughter to the zoo early Friday.
"We were here about this time last year to greet the eight Olympic pandas upon their arrival, and we saw them off before they went back to their home province in March," she said.
Beijing Zoo has tailored a special menu for the guest pandas, including 150 kilograms of fresh bamboo leaves and 12 kg of bamboo shoots a day, as well as apples, carrots, milk powder and corn bread, zoo managers said.
The pandas will stay in Beijing until April 29, 2010.
(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2009)
