“Symbol of diplomacy” and “national treasure”, two famous pandas from Beauval zoo prepare to make long journey back to China

Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, who arrived in France in 2012, had their last snack in public on Sunday before leaving France on Tuesday.

Beauval zoo visitors said their final “goodbyes”. This week, November 23, two of the zoo’s famous pandas, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, appeared for the last time in public at the famous zoo. Saint-Aignan (Loir-et-Cher) during a public tea party. The pandas, who arrived from China in 2012 and are now 17 years old, will leave France on Tuesday by plane to return to their home country and their country of origin. research and breeding center in Chengdu, in the center of the country.

“The journey will take a total of about twelve hours. First they will be escorted by the national gendarmerie from Beauval to Roissy airport. Then, the flight to Chengdu will take about ten hours. And finally, they will be transported to the panda base,” explained the zoo’s director, Rodolphe Delord, on RTL on Thursday.

“It is customary for pandas entrusted by China to end their lives where they are born”commented the zoo director. He explained that the woman, Huan Huan, suffering from kidney failure, moved up the pair’s departure date for China, originally planned for 2027. The two pandas arrived on January 15, 2012, as part of an agreement with Chinese authorities. “They were welcomed on the red carpet, it was a national event and their departure (East) is also an event, but it’s just a step for the Beauval zoo”the zoo director also said, noting that the Ursid couple had three babies.

If the first has returned to China, then the two 4-year-old twins (one of whom has Kylian Mbappé as his godfather), Huanlili and Yuandudu, still lives at the Beauval zoo. And discussions are underway to perpetuate the tradition of welcoming pandas between France and China, Rodolphe Delord said. According to him, pandas “is holy” in China and now “a symbol of diplomacy but also a symbol of endangered animals.” “Welcoming them means raising awareness” the public will know their fate, explained the director of the zoo, the only one in France to welcome the mammals that made it famous.

The reception of these pandas in France was also diplomatic. Since the 7th century and the Tang Dynasty, China has used giant pandas as gifts to initiate or maintain international relations. Plantigrade, which earned the Chinese nickname “guo bao” (“national treasure”), “paints a convincing picture of China (…) and adheres to the doctrine of ‘peaceful emergence’ promoted by previous Chinese presidents”described in 2017 on BFMTV Samuel Richer, rhead of the Asia program at the Open Diplomacy Institute, welcoming two giant pandas at Berlin Zoo in 2017.