Now Anyone Can Meet Xiang Xiang, if Not Mind Waiting in Long Line

June 5, 2018

Tokyo- Tokyo's Ueno Zoo lifted on Tuesday its limit on the daily number of people who can see Xiang Xiang, ahead of the female giant panda cub's first birthday on June 12.

Visitors to the zoo in Taito Ward can now meet the star animal on a first-come basis without viewing tickets that had been distributed to some first 9,500 people per business day of the zoo, although they may have to wait in a long line.

With the viewer number ceiling removed, around 15,000 people are expected to see Xiang Xiang each day, the zoo said, adding those who want to view the cub have to basically get in a line by 4 p.m. (7 a.m. GMT).

On Tuesday, some 810 people were waiting in a queue at the entrance gate ahead of the zoo's opening at 9:30 a.m.

"(Xiang Xiang was) sleeping on a tree and looking cute," said Mayuko Ueda, a 21-year-old university student from Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo.

The ticket system had allowed each person to see the cub only once a day. "I like the new system because if I repeatedly stand in line I can see (Xiang Xiang) time and again," Ueda said. She had been waiting from around 6 a.m. for the zoo to open.

"We were able to see her without waiting long," said a 38-year-old woman from Abiko, another Chiba city, who visited the zoo with two family members, including her eldest son, who has the same birthday as the panda cub. "I hope my son will grow up charmingly like Xiang Xiang," she noted.

According to the zoo, Xiang Xiang has been growing up healthy.

She ate an apple bit by bit while holding it with her front paws on May 10. As of Tuesday, her weight had increased to 28.2 kilograms.

Xiang Xiang made her public debut in December last year. Only about 2,000 lottery winners a day had been allowed to see her before the ticket system was adopted in February this year.

Expecting more and more people to come to see Xiang Xiang as her birthday comes closer, the zoo is ready to post the waiting time on its official Twitter page when a long line is formed. Jiji Press