Hong Kong’s 2 new giant pandas get official send-off in Sichuan before much-awaited arrival

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials have given the city’s two incoming giant pandas an official send-off in Sichuan province, a day before their arrival in their new home.

Tourism chief Kevin Yeung Yun-hung was among those attending the ceremony at the giant panda base in Dujiangyan on Wednesday and thanked Beijing for gifting the two bears to Hong Kong.

“In the past three months, you and your team have been running around and working day and night to make arrangements for An An and Ke Ke to go to Hong Kong. Thank you for your hard work,” he said to representatives of the mainland authorities.

Ocean Park chairman Paulo Pong Kin-yee also received the birth certificates of giant pandas An An and Ke Ke, as they are known in Sichuan, from his mainland counterparts.

Officials from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda also took part in the official farewell.