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Visitors in front of the »Xiang Xiang« enclosure: a farewell with tears
Photo: Masanori Takei / dpa
For "Xiang Xiang" it was probably the last public appearance in Japan: on Sunday thousands of fans said goodbye to the giant panda female in Tokyo, who is to be flown to his new Chinese homeland on Tuesday.
The approximately 2,600 guests had won their tickets for the Ueno Zoo in a hotly contested lottery.
To cope with the rush, the visitors were divided into groups, each of which had only a few minutes to say goodbye - some visitors had tears in their eyes.
Although all tickets were taken, more fans waited in front of the zoo to witness the farewell.
The giant panda lady apparently took the hustle and bustle calmly.
Photos show her nibbling on bamboo sticks in front of an audience.
"Xiang Xiang is not only cute, but also charming and funny," the AP news agency quoted an enthusiastic zoo visitor as saying.
"I don't think there's another panda like her in the universe."
The panda lady was born in the zoo in Tokyo.
But since her parents are on loan from China, she now has to return there.
The animal is scheduled to be flown to the Chinese province of Sichuan on Tuesday.
China sends pandas abroad as a show of goodwill, but retains ownership of the pandas and the offspring they sire.
"Panda diplomacy" doesn't seem to be having an effect on Japanese zoo visitors: "I hope that Japan and China can deepen their friendship through pandas like "Xiang Xiang" and, for example, through environmental issues," said one zoo visitor.
The relationship between Japan and China is considered tense – most recently, suspected flights of Chinese spy balloons in Japan caused a scandal.
Native to southwest China, the giant pandas are an unofficial national mascot of the country.
The animals rarely reproduce in the wild and are among the most endangered species in the world.
An estimated 1,800 pandas live in the wild, with another 500 in zoos or reserves, mostly in China's Sichuan province.
mic/AP