CHENGDU, China — A pair of pandas in China set off today on their long-awaited goodwill journey to their new home in Taiwan after a breakfast of carrots and steamed corn buns and a teary farewell from their keeper, state media reported.
Four-year-old Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan left their breeding base in Ya’an in southwest China’s Sichuan province in the morning to make their way to the airport in the provincial capital of Chengdu, 75 miles away, after a brief send-off ceremony, Xinhua News Agency said.
“I wish them a happy life in Taiwan,” Xinhua quoted tearful Ya’an panda keeper Qu Chunmao as saying.
Beijing first offered the pandas to Taiwan in 2005, hoping that they would strengthen Taiwanese public support for reuniting with the mainland, an offer rejected by the island’s former leaders who supported independence for the self-governed island. Current Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou has tried to nurture closer ties with the mainland and accepted the pandas as a goodwill gesture.
Roads were to be blocked when the pandas traveled through southwest China to the Chengdu airport in a convoy, China’s state television CCTV earlier reported. An Eva Air jet from Taiwan was to leave Chengdu in the afternoon with the pandas.
More than 500 security guards and armed police were keeping watch at the airport. The tight security underscores enduring political tension between China and rival Taiwan, with the self-ruled island’s opposition warning that the pandas may be a communist propaganda ploy.
Xinhua quoted a panda keeper from Taiwan who would accompany the pair to the island as saying the pandas were in good condition.
“They had a good breakfast to sustain them on the long journey,” she said in the report.
When linked, “Tuan Tuan” and “Yuan Yuan” mean “reunion” in Chinese.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, and China has repeatedly warned that any Taiwanese moves to formalize its de facto independence could be met with war.
