Endangered creatures head for Scandinavia as Denmark prepares new research center

When Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen made his recent three-day trip to China, what he probably most wanted to see were pandas, as the Nordic country prepares for the arrival of two of the adorable creatures.

Soon after arriving in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, on May 2, Rasmussen traveled to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, where he fed two of the animals - Maosun and Hexing - with apples and bread.

The two pandas are scheduled to be lent to Copenhagen for 15 years of research, following an agreement made during Danish Queen Margrethe II's state visit to China in April 2014. It will be the first time that pandas have traveled to a Nordic country.

The giant panda has been one of the most endangered species in the world, with fewer than 2,000 in existence. Sichuan is known to the world as the home of pandas.

By the end of last year, China had cooperated in panda research with 13 countries, seven of them in Europe: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium. Denmark is the first Nordic country to start cooperation on panda research with China.

Apart from feeding pandas, Rasmussen talked with Zhang Zhihe, director of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, about pandas' lives and environment.

On May 3, the Danish prime minister, together with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the protection of pandas at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Jia Jiansheng, deputy director of the Department of Wildlife Protection and Nature Reserve Management at the State Forestry Administration, expressed gratitude for Denmark's support of panda protection and research.

The two countries could make fruitful progress in scientific research on pandas, he said after the signing ceremony.

Since November 2015, Copenhagen Zoo has sent vets, feeders and nutrition experts to Chengdu to study the protection, feeding and wild training of pandas, according to a statement released by the base on May 3.

In March, the zoo unveiled the design of a planned enclosure for the two pandas, which are scheduled to travel to Denmark around the end of next year.

Construction of the Panda House will begin in November and last for 12 to 13 months. It is estimated that the whole project will cost around 125-150 million Danish kroner ($18 million to 22 million; 16 million to 20 million euros; ￡14 million to 17 million), Copenhagen Zoo director and CEO Steffen Straede told Xinhua News Agency.

The Panda House is a brainchild of the zoo in collaboration with two local architects and landscape companies, Bjarke Ingels Group and Schonherr A/S.

According to BIG, the design of the enclosure begins with a circular shape, formed by the surrounding existing facilities. The site will be divided into two parts, following the yin-yang symbol from China's traditional philosophy and creating separate enclosures for male and female pandas.

"The Panda House is designed to feel like humans are the visitors in the pandas' home, rather than the pandas being exotic guests from faraway lands," according to a BIG presentation.

Following Denmark, Finland became the second Nordic country to agree with China to cooperate on panda research. During President Xi Jinping's state visit to Finland last month, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on panda research.

According to a report on Yle, also known as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, the pandas are set to arrive at the end of this year and will be hosted at Ahtari Zoo, an animal park in the South Ostrobothnia region of Finland. Leading panda experts from China will travel to the zoo to help construct a panda center.

China and Finland agreed to "make the pandas messengers of friendship between our two countries," Xi said at a joint news conference held with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki on April 5.

"I want to thank President Xi for his trust that the pandas will be protected in Finland. We know that pandas are a national treasure for China and we will honor and value them," Niinisto said at the news conference.

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(China Daily European Weekly 05/05/2017 page3)