Tot charms Japan
Panda cub captivates public after going on exhibition in Tokyo
A “panda boom” is in the air in Japan, as Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo begins a limited public exhibition — two and a half hours a day — of its six-month-old giant panda cub, Xiang Xiang, on Tuesday.
The toddler, small enough at birth to fit in the palm of a hand, now has typical panda markings and weighs around 12 kilograms.
Tokyo Metropolitan government had a celebration on Monday of Xiang Xiang’s public debut. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike was all smiles after coming out of the zoo’s panda house, telling reporters that the baby panda was “just adorable”.
“She climbed a tree and even showed us her cute little back,” Koike said. “I was very anxious to see how she could come down.”
Clinging to the tree trunk with her tiny but sharp claws, Xiang Xiang slowly came down to the ground. She then played with a bamboo branch, putting it to her mouth, though she is still being breast-fed by her mother.
Presenting a panda statue to the zoo as a gift, Wang Wan, the wife of Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua, said: “This year marks the 45th anniversary of the normalization of ties between China and Japan. I think the birth of Xiang Xiang — pronounced Shan Shan in Japanese — is truly auspicious.”
The panda cub’s name, written with the Chinese character for fragrance, was chosen from more than 322,000 suggestions submitted by the public.
Xiang Xiang’s parents, Shin Shin and Ri Ri, arrived from China in February 2011 and went on view soon after the following month’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, offering a scrap of good news for an anguished nation.
Xiang Xiang is the first cub born in Ueno Zoo in five years and the first panda baby on show in 28 years. So it’s not difficult to find that the area close to the zoo is the panda land now. Pictures of panda are on shops’ windows, metro stations’ walls, and even breads at some cafes.
More than 240,000 people have drawn lots for the first batch of lucky visitors to see Xiang Xiang on Dec 19-28.
However, only 2,000 viewers will be allowed in the panda house each day to minimize stress on the cub.
The chances of booking a ticket for the viewing are one in more than 140.
To help those who are not lucky enough to get a ticket, the Ueno Tourism Federation has developed a smartphone app for viewing footage of Xiang Xiang, which will be released on Tuesday.
The app using the technology as virtual reality and augmented reality is believed to enable Apple and Android-users to see the panda cub anytime, anywhere.
For avid panda fans who miss out, the zoo will also offer a live stream of Xiang Xiang’s daily life from Tuesday for a year.
In October 1972, China sent two giant pandas — the male Kang Kang and the female Lan Lan — to Ueno Zoo to mark the normalization of the diplomatic ties between the two countries. Japan fell immediately head over heels in love with the creatures. People waited for hours to have a glimpse of them.