Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng speaks to visitors during the opening of Panda Ridge at the San Diego Zoo on Thursday. (LI ZHIWEI/PEOPLE'S DAILY) The city of San Diego is "Pan-Diego" again with a new pair of giant pandas having made their public debut recently. Yun Chuan, a 5-year-old male, and Xin Bao, a 4-year-old female, were the first pandas to be sent to the United States in more than two decades, attracting thousands of visitors and much media attention.
California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed Aug 8 as California Panda Day. Newsom was at the San Diego Zoo on Thursday to attend the opening of the newly expanded Panda Ridge — Yun Chuan and Xin Bao's new home. People from across the US are flocking to the zoo to visit the zoo's newest residents, with some making reservations weeks in advance and the wait list equally as long.
At noon on Thursday, visitors in panda T-shirts waited in the shade of the dense bamboo forest at Panda Ridge in anticipation of their first encounter with Yun Chuan and Xin Bao. "We are excited to see the pandas. We are looking forward to this all day," Taylor Ory, 29, a visitor from San Diego, told China Daily.
"We are excited to have them back!" Ory said she waited around 30 minutes to see Yun Chuan, who was lying on a wooden climbing frame sunbathing. "He was sleeping. He's very cute.
We got to see a side profile of his face," Ory recalled. "Even though they are bears, they look so cute. They seem smaller than the other bear.