The Taipei Zoo celebrated its 99th anniversary yesterday and presented an honorary citizen’s card to the zoo’s star animal — baby panda Yuan Zai (圓仔).
Yuan Zai, the first cub of the giant panda couple Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓), is 112 days old and has yet to appear in public.
Taipei Zoo spokesman Chang Chi-hua (張志華) said the zoo will launch a real-time online streaming service by the end of this month for the public to view the cub before her public appearance in January.
The zoo also concluded a naming activity for the baby panda and announced that the nickname given by the zoo, Yuan Zai, would be her official name, as 60 percent of the 75,000 people who voted chose that name.
In presenting the citizen card to a Yuan Zai doll at the celebration ceremony, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he hoped the popularity of the panda cub would raise public awareness about wildlife preservation.
“Yuan Zai is under great care by zookeepers, and she will meet her fans soon. In the meantime, we hope her popularity will make more people aware about animal protection and preservation,” he said.
Separately, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said that the birth of the panda cub in Taipei was an achievement in cross-strait relations.
Wu, who was attending an annual KMT forum with the Chinese Communist Party, invited Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) to visit Yuan Zai in Taipei.
Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan were selected from 23 panda cubs early in 2006 by China as a “gift” to Taiwan following the meeting between former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and then-Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in 2005. The pair arrived at the Taipei Zoo in 2008.
The zoo will be able to keep Yuan Zai in Taipei because Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan were a gift from China.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
RSS