Tokyo's Ueno Zoo has reopened, two weeks after the massive earthquake. And the long-awaited debut of two giant pandas has finally taken place.

About one thousand people lined up in the morning waiting for the gates to open at Tokyo's Zoo, drawn by the debut of giant pandas Shin Shin and Ri Ri.

Shin Shin, the female, and Ri Ri arrived in Tokyo on February 21st, just 18 days before the magnitude-9 quake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan.

Both had also been housed at the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan when a magnitude-8 quake struck the province in May 2008.

Ueno was one of the first zoos outside China to house giant pandas in 1972, when a pair arrived in Tokyo as a gift to mark the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two nations.

This time, Tokyo will donate 950-thousand dollars a year to panda research in China in return for the two pandas.