Yuanyuan and Tuantuan go to Taiwan

Photo of the panda couple Yuanyuan and Tuantuan by Xinhua News Agency

Yuanyuan and Tuantuan, two giant pandas who made the headlines two years ago when Taiwan's government refused to accept them as a gift from mainland China, will now at long last be moving to Taiwan. Since the pandas' names together form the word "tuanyuan" (团圆) or "reunion", the gift was seen as having rather political undertones. With the newly elected KMT ruling the island, the welcoming of these two cuddly bears might be viewed as a symbol for a closer relationship with the mainland.

The two pandas have been living at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, in Sichuan province, where they were lucky enough to survive the May 12th earthquake.