Hong Kong to welcome new pair of giant pandas on September 26
New arrivals will boost the bear population in city to six, alongside Ying Ying and Le Le and their twin newborns at Ocean Park
Two eagerly awaited giant pandas gifted by Beijing are scheduled to arrive in Hong Kong on September 26 and take the city’s population of the rare animals to six, the Post has learned.
The bears, aged between five and eight years old, or the equivalent of 15 to 24 in human years, will be flown from Chengdu in Sichuan province to Hong Kong via Cathay Pacific Airways’ cargo services, sources said on Tuesday.
The pandas are set to arrive before National Day on October 1 but will be subject to 30 days of quarantine upon arrival.
The pandas were likely to be a female and a male, a source said.
A Hong Kong delegation that included senior personnel and veterinarians of Ocean Park would visit Sichuan before the animals departed for the city, the source added.
Beijing gave the bears to Hong Kong to celebrate the 27th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty this year.