Chinese panda donation to mark Hong Kong anniversary

China is to donate two pandas to a Hong Kong zoo to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the former British colony’s handover to Chinese rule.

The pair, a male and female both born in 2005, will move to their new home in Hong Kong’s Ocean Park before May 1, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

There, they will join another pair of pandas, An An and Jia Jia, who were given to Hong Kong in 1999, it said.

“It is an exceptional case for the Central Government to give an extra pair to Hong Kong,” Hong Kong's No.2 leader Rafael Hui was quoted as saying on his recent visit to the China Panda Protection and Research Centre at Wolong in the south-western province of Sichuan.

China has been building anticipation over the July 1 Hong Kong handover commemorations as part of efforts to instil patriotism and faith in Communist Party leadership.

Unique to China, pandas are frequently used by the government as a symbol of goodwill. Loans have been made to the United States and other countries to mark major breakthroughs in relations.

However, a 2005 offer to send a pair of pandas to Taiwan was rejected by the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its territory.