Hong Kong’s Ocean Park plans to build a panda museum as part of efforts to help promote interest in the city’s own family of bears in the long term, its chairman has told the Post as the public waits to meet two locally born cubs for the first time.
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In an exclusive interview last week, Paulo Pong Kin-yee said the museum, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars, would be developed in stages over the coming years at the park’s existing site in Wong Chuk Hang.
The twin panda cubs, popularly known as “Elder Sister” and “Younger Brother”, are expected to make their public debut on Sunday. The pair were born to mother Ying Ying in August last year.
Pong said plans were under way to expand the park’s panda habitat for when the cubs turned three years old and started to live more independently.
“We have many stories to tell. Our journey started in 1999, when the late giant pandas An An and Jia Jia came to Hong Kong,” he said.
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“A panda museum will serve this purpose in a holistic manner.