The Japan-born giant panda Xiang Xiang is about to be transferred to an airplane in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 21, 2023. (SF Airlines/Handout via Xinhua)
On Sunday, the final day the public could see giant panda Xiang Xiang, thousands of Japanese people from all over the country crowded at the zoo for one last look at the five-year-old beloved panda.
TOKYO, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- With cherry blossoms just unfolding their fragile pinky-white leaves in the early spring breeze in Tokyo, the beloved Japan-born giant panda Xiang Xiang on Tuesday embarked on her journey back to China.
Around 7:10 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning, a white truck carrying the panda slowly drove out of Ueno Zoological Gardens, as many Japanese people waved goodbye along the sidewalk outside the gates of the zoo.
Upon her return, Xiang Xiang will be taken to Bifengxia Giant Panda Base, a giant panda research and breeding facility in the city of Ya'an, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, which is known as the hometown of giant pandas.
NATIONWIDE PANDA STAR
A total of 13 Chinese giant pandas, including Xiang Xiang, now live in Japan, making it the country with the largest number of pandas overseas.
In the eyes of Japanese people, Ueno Zoo is the starting point of Japan's affection for giant pandas, as it witnessed the first pair of pandas given to Japan, Kang Kang and Lan Lan, 50 years ago.
Xiang Xiang, a female panda born here on June 12, 2017, was the first panda naturally born and raised at the zoo in the nearly three decades since You You, born in 1988.
After her birth created a sensation in Japan, from her name, and public debut, to her birthdays, Xiang Xiang has always been a trending topic on local media.
The name Xiang Xiang was chosen from more than 320,000 suggestions that people sent to the zoo three months after she was born. After she went on public display in December of the same year, Xiang Xiang soon became a popular star.
A visitor takes photos of a picture during a photographic exhibition of giant panda Xiang Xiang in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 17, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)
"Let's continue to be friends after you return to China!"
"Thank you for building bridges for the China-Japan friendship!" Such messages overwhelmed the zoo's online message board and will be conveyed to the China Wildlife Conservation Association and China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.
On Sunday, the final day the public could see Xiang Xiang, thousands of Japanese people from all over the country crowded at the zoo for one last look at the five-year-old beloved panda.
A lottery for tickets to see the idol panda on the day was held in advance since many visitors were expected, with the overall odds of winning a ticket surpassing 20:1 and the odds for the final group of viewers reaching as high as 70:1, according to the park's officials.
The lucky ones who won the tickets on Sunday, including some elderly people on crutches and couples holding babies, were lining up to wait for their turn to say goodbye to Xiang Xiang in their due time slots.
Natsuki Mizuguchi, a graphic designer in her 30s, wearing a self-designed hoodie using photos of Xiang Xiang's head that she had taken, was among the last group of viewers to meet with the panda on Sunday.
"Xiang Xiang is pretty and vivacious compared to the other pandas," Mizuguchi told Xinhua, adding that she hoped Xiang Xiang will also gain popularity after she returns to China and continue to be a panda star.
This photo taken on Feb. 19, 2023 shows giant panda Xiang Xiang at Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, Japan. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE
In the panda house, each group of visitors was given only two minutes to bid farewell to Xiang Xiang, as she was scoffing at bamboo sticks with carefree abandon. Viewers held up their mobile phones and cameras, trying to capture every precious last moment, and as the staff urged them to move on, they continued to look back fondly, some even shedding tears.
Mizuki Wada, a "Xiang Xiang fan" from Saitama Prefecture, cannot count the number of visits she has made to the panda house since Xiang Xiang's first public appearance. "I would come here every weekend and on days when I'm not working, so I think I've been here hundreds of times," she told Xinhua, while showing the latest photos she had snapped on Sunday.
When asked about her parting words for the panda, Wada bowed her head in silence, then looked up, with tears streaming down her face. "Thank you for being born in Ueno, and for bringing smiles and heartwarming moments to all panda lovers, and to all Japanese people."
"I hope that Xiang Xiang will become a master parent like her own mother after she returns to China, as long as she stays healthy and happy," she added.
"I would like to say thank you to Xiang Xiang who was supposed to be returned to China at the age of two. She has been living in Japan for more than five years, showing her loveliness to us panda fans for so much longer," said a female visitor surnamed Miura, who didn't win a lottery slot but came anyway to say goodbye to Xiang Xiang wearing a panda jacket.
An 18-meter-high poster of giant panda Xiang Xiang is seen outside a shopping mall in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 17, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)
SEE YOU IN CHINA
Not far from Ueno Zoo, on the second floor of a Japanese Matsuzakaya department store, a photo exhibition on Xiang Xiang is being held, featuring 920 photos of the panda taken by Takahiro Takauji, a panda photographer who runs the famous blog "Mainichi Panda."
The photos, selected from over 100,000 pictures taken by Takauji, chronicles the 920 days he spent with Xiang Xiang from December 2017 to November 2022.
Takauji was also spotted near the panda house on Sunday. However, the man was certain it was not the last chance for him to take pictures of the panda. "I will definitely go to China to see Xiang Xiang in the future," he told Xinhua.
Xiang Xiang was born to Shin Shin (female) and Ri Ri (male), two giant pandas on loan from China, where the ownership over the cubs they gave birth to belongs.
Now five years and eight months old, the panda has reached her breeding maturity. She was originally scheduled to travel back to China by the end of December 2020, but her return was postponed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
People visit a photographic exhibition of giant panda Xiang Xiang in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 17, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaoyu)
"Considering the future of Xiang Xiang and the giant pandas as a species, it would be amazing if she found a good mate and bred in China," said Yutaka Fukuda, director of Ueno Zoo, though admitting his feeling of loss.
Toshimitsu Doi, head of the Panda Protection Institute of Japan, also believed it is good for Xiang Xiang to return to China, where she can find a partner among a great number of male pandas, and fulfill her mission as a wild animal to reproduce.
At Ueno Zoo, several panda lovers told Xinhua that they dreamed of visiting Xiang Xiang in China after she makes her public debut there.
As the night fell, a group of "Xiang Xiang fans" were still reluctant to leave the zoo on Sunday. Each holding a Xiang Xiang doll in their arms, they shouted their goodbyes in Chinese towards the direction of the beloved panda: "See you, Xiang Xiang! We will visit you in China!" ■
