The celebration was opened by welcome speech from Ambassador A. Carsten Damsgaard followed by the speech from Dai Guangcui, Director General of international cooperation department. The keynote speakers also included Zhang Zhihe, Director General from Chengdu panda breeding base who shared to the participants about the preparation to welcome two giant pandas in Denmark.
Prior to the celebration in China, Copenhagen Zoo, pandas ’new residence, organized a formal launching day a month ago on April 4 in Copenhagen where the royal guests, Queen Margrethe and Crown Princess Mary as well as the honor guests from Denmark and China attended to welcome the two giant pandas namely six-year-old Xing’er (male) and five-year-old Mao Sun (female).
Bengt Holst, scientific director of the Copenhagen Zoo, said since having two pandas in the zoo, the number of visitors has noticeably climbed up from 120,000 last year to more than 200,000 this year.
“The pandas are well-received, and the Danish people will be excited for many years from now. The pandas are doing pretty well. It’s as if they have been there for serval years already,” said Holst.
The new enclosed residence designed to look like Yin-Yang symbol, helped its new habitants to feel more private and comfortable in public space so that the pandas would not feel stressed when they saw unfamiliar faces of the zoo visitors.
“The good thing is that they don’t look as if they notice the visitors. Actually, they don’t care about the number of visitors whether there are only five or 50. It doesn’t bother them, which is really good,” Holst added.
