Taipei city councilors have criticized the Taipei City Government, saying it failed to seize upon the birth of a second giant panda cub to promote tourism to the city.
Giant panda Yuan Yuan (圓圓) on June 28 gave birth to her second cub at Taipei Zoo, after years of artificial insemination efforts.
Taipei City Councilor Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Saturday said that when the first cub, named Yuan Zai (圓仔), was born on July 6, 2013, the city government at the time held several events to draw public attention to its birth, such as issuing EasyCards and merchandise themed around the cub, which helped attract visitors from outside Taipei and boosted the city’s tourism industry.
Photo: CNA
However, Yu said that the city government has been so quiet this time around that even she was not aware that a second cub was born until a couple of days ago.
The city government should use Taipei’s unique qualities to market the capital, she added.
Taipei Department of Information and Tourism Commissioner Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆) said his department has been in close contact with the Education Department to draw up promotion plans such as allowing night-time visits to the zoo and organizing summer camps.
Details are being ironed out on how the activities could tie into this month’s theme, which has been designated as “Children’s Month” in the city, he added.
The new female cub, which weighed 186g at birth, is being kept in an incubator, the zoo said.
Both cubs were conceived by artificial insemination, as attempts to have Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan (團團) mate have been unsuccessful, the zoo added.
Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan are two giant pandas that were gifted to Taiwan by China in 2008.
The zoo said it had been artificially inseminating Yuan Yuan each breeding season since Yuan Zai was born, but the efforts proved unsuccessful until February.
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