Giant panda cub Xiang Xiang wows visitors

December 19, 2017

Tokyo- In her much-awaited public debut on Tuesday, Xiang Xiang, a six-month-old giant panda cub at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, enthralled lucky visitors chosen by lottery.

With smartphones and other devices, visitors frantically snapped photos of Xiang Xiang playing and rolling around in her enclosure, during the precious few minutes they were given to see the cub from up close.

"She's cute," one squealed in delight over the adorable cub. Another said, "I want to watch her for a little while longer."

It was the first time in 29 years for the zoo in the Japanese capital's Taito Ward to show a giant panda cub born there to the public since Yu Yu, who was born in 1988. Xiang Xiang is the third giant panda cub to make a public debut at the zoo.

Jotaro Kobayashi, a four-year-old boy from Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, said, "Xiang Xiang was climbing up a tree, standing on her head and playing."

"Ueno (Zoo) is the only place where you can see a panda up close," the boy's mother, Natsumi, 38, said. She added that she hopes seeing Xiang Xiang will become a fond memory for her son.

Sakiko Ubukawa, 53, from Soka, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, said she found the cub's slightly pinkish fur "cute."

"I was lucky to be given a chance to see her on the first day of public viewing," she added.

"We're relieved that this day finally came," Hirofumi Watabe, deputy head of Ueno Zoo, said. "We hope people will have a new appreciation for animals after watching the baby giant panda."

Some 400 ticket-winning groups, each consisting of up to five people, saw the cub on Tuesday. The odds of winning a ticket for the limited viewing were one in 46.

The zoo received about 250,000 applications for the nine viewing days before the end of the year.

Currently, the zoo is accepting applications to view Xiang Xiang on Jan. 2-21 next year. As of Monday, it had received some 260,000 requests.

As the public viewing is available for only a limited number of people, Ueno Zoo offers live streaming video of Xiang Xiang on its special website.

Live video can be watched from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the zoo's business days. After the zoo closes, three hours of recorded footage is offered.

The zoo has set up eight cameras in the giant panda enclosure, three of which are for Xiang Xiang and her mother, Shin Shin.

"We hope that many people will watch the mother and baby," an official of the zoo said. Jiji Press