Thousands of Japanese say goodbye on Sunday to four pandas that will return to China this week. to a park in the Wakayama area in the west of the country to say goodbye to the animals, three other pandas.
In Tokyo, only 2,600 people got to see Xiang Xiang, the zoo’s first panda cub since 1988, for the last time after their names were drawn by lot, but that hasn’t stopped others from coming to the park. “I wanted to breathe the same air (…) Even if I don’t see her, I’m happy because I know she’s here,” Mari Asai told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Another visitor tearfully told local media that she wanted to be close to the five-year-old panda.
The daily Tokyo Shimbun, citing a spokesperson for the zoo, said that Ueno receives daily calls and emails from panda lovers asking her to leave Xiangxiang.
The panda was supposed to be sent to China in 2021, but her trip has been delayed several times due to travel restrictions due to the pandemic.
In Wakayama, visitors flocked to say goodbye to Emi, who became the world’s largest member of his species, who in 2020 gave birth to a panda cub at the age of 28, the equivalent of an 80-year-old human. and his twin daughters.
“I’m sad because she’s going back to China,” the 70-year-old woman told public broadcaster NHK.
These black-and-white mammals are very popular all over the world, and China lends them out as part of its “panda diplomacy” program to promote international relations.
