Journey full of hope and symbolism as China sends pandas to Taiwan

IT WAS the sort of reception usually accorded to heads of state or global pop stars. But maybe it wasn't that surprising: TuanTuan and YuanYuan are now celebrities in their own right.

Fortified by a breakfast of steamed corn buns and carrots, the two giant pandas yesterday completed a once-unthinkable journey that had been three years in the planning.

Soon, the pair known as China's "unity" pandas will begin a new life in the unlikely surroundings of a Taiwanese zoo, symbols of a fragile truce between the former enemies.

The animals, whose names mean "reunion" when put together, arrived yesterday afternoon at Taoyuan Airport. They will spend a month in quarantine, before going on show at a specially built £6.5 million enclosure at Taipei Zoo, where tens of thousands of people will look on with wonder each day.

It was a testing day for TuanTuan and YuanYuan, as it was for people in Sichuan, home of the world's remaining giant pandas, who bid their beloved animals a tearful farewell.

Having been offered by China as a goodwill gesture three years ago – and rejected by Taiwan's then president before his successor did a U-turn – the trip made political history.

Their journey began in the city of Ya'an, to which they were moved after last May's earthquake destroyed the Wolong breeding centre where they were born.

As they were carefully loaded on to a lorry for the trip to Chengdu airport, a party of schoolchildren dressed in panda suits danced and waved.

Such joyous scenes may soon be played out in Scotland's capital, with plans to send a pair of giant pandas to Edinburgh Zoo in 2010 being backed by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister.

Yesterday, however, belonged to TuanTuan and YuanYuan. Their convoy dwarfed any presidential motorcade. Such was the sensitivity of the cargo, more than 500 security guards and armed police followed the route. There were also about 20 panda experts, while two keepers carried a host of supplies, including motion sickness pills and more than 800 kilograms of bamboo – just in case the food in Taiwan disagreed with TuanTuan and YuanYuan.

On arriving at the airport for their charter flight, further dancing was provided by members of the Qiang minority group, who occupy the foggy mountains that are the pandas' natural habitat.

In Taiwan, a huge television audience watched each step and savoured every detail – the panda pictures painted on the cages that would hold the four-year-olds, and the panda designs on the headrests and walls of the plane.

Not all Taiwanese were excited, of course. George Hou, a mass communications lecturer at I-Shou University, said the pandas were little more than a "diplomatic tool" designed to make people think "China is a friendly country".

The Chinese government saw fit to remind everyone of the significance of their gesture. "The pandas take 1.3 billion mainland people's blessings to Taiwan and will sow the seeds of peace, unity and fraternal love there," said Zheng Lizhong, deputy director of China's Taiwan affairs office.

Emotion curtailed the eloquence of Qu Chunma, the keeper who cared for TuanTuan and YuanYuan in Ya'an. "I wish them a happy life in Taiwan," he said at a farewell ceremony.

And then they were off on the three-hour flight over the Taiwan Strait. It is hoped the pandas will mate, and, should they produce a cub, it is expected it would be sent back to China.

It remains to be seen if the pandas bring harmony between China and Taiwan, but if they breed, TuanTuan and YuanYuan's family will be cherished equally by two nations that once stood on the brink of war.


Symbols of decades of division

CHINA'S offer of the two endangered giant pandas has long been seen as a symbol of its attempts to smooth relations with Taiwan.

Officials in Beijing are convinced the gift will strengthen public support in Taiwan for reuniting with the mainland after more than 50 years. China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since civil war split the nations in 1949, and Beijing has threatened to use force if the island of 23 million people formally declares statehood.

Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan were first offered by Beijing in 2005. The gesture was initially turned down by the island's former pro-independence leaders.

But Taiwan's current president, Ma Ying-jeou, who is keener to nurture closer ties with Beijing, controversially agreed to accept them.

When the president met Chen Yunlin, China's top Taiwan affairs negotiator, in one of the highest-level contacts between the two sides since the civil war, thousands of protesters clashed with riot police outside. Outside the presidential office, at least 10,000 protesters wearing "Taiwan is my country" ribbons shouted abuse, telling Mr Chen to leave and Mr Ma to step down.