Panda Bears Pair Expected in Changchun Jilin Soon

The city of Changchun, Jilin province has a panda house in its Jilin Siberian Tiger Park that will open on July 1 and is looking forward to receiving two amazing guests that day - a pair of pandas - according to a June 18 provincial press conference.

The two pandas, one male aged 8, the other female aged 7, came from the Dujiangyan panda base in Sichuan province and the park, which is also a wildlife research center, signed a three-year contract with the China Conservation and Research Center to get the pandas on loan, to make an attempt at panda raising at a higher latitude in China's Northeast.

To properly welcome the pandas, the park built the 900-square–meter specially designed house with proper facilities, on a 4,800-sq-m space that includes a playing field, a corridor, and a square. The house's exterior is a bit of a highlight since it is shaped like a panda.

Wang Wei, the vice-head of the provincial forestry bureau, says that this is a good opportunity to increase social awareness of wildlife and nature preservation, especially since pandas are so popular.

The park is asking people to suggest names for the pair, and is offering rewards. The names should be connected with ecological preservation and easy to remember. The submission deadline is July 15.