Word: panda
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...China's State Seismological Bureau reported the magnitude 7.8 quake was centered about 90 km northwest of Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu in Wenchuan county, which is famous for the Wolong panda-breeding center...
...Olympic torch made its tour of Nagano City without much incident last week (unlike a later, tumultuous journey through South Korea). But now, just as Tokyo is about to welcome Chinese President Hu Jintao on a relatively extended state visit, a strange omen has occured: Ling Ling, the only panda that China has given rather than loaned to Japan, has died...
...malfunction. His portrait now sits inside his cage, next to bouquets and his favorite bamboo shoots. Some visitors wept; others prayed and wrote notes to his memory. In 1992, Ling Ling was part of a bilateral trade agreement of sorts: the Chinese gave Tokyo a giant black-and-white panda - native to its southwest - in exchange for a panda the Japanese had bred in captivity. China has since stopped giving pandas away as part of its diplomatic policy and has also suspended its lucrative "loans" of the animals to zoos around the world because of the species' increasing endangered status...
...news is that Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda may ask Hu for a new panda. (Japan has eight pandas on loan from China.) The sad passing of Ling Ling could thus become an opportunity for the Chinese President to dramatically improve ties between Tokyo and Beijing. He is already getting the full VIP treatment during his May 6 to 10 tour. Hu will meet with Fukuda, then with the Emperor and Empress, and visit Yokohama's Chinatown as well as the historic city of Nara and the financial center of Osaka. Symbolically, it is already an important trip...
...Japanese do get a new panda of their own, they can only hope the animal will be more fruitful than Ling Ling. With a name meaning "darling little girl" in Chinese, Ling Ling, a male, was probably confused. He had no luck mating with female giant pandas. His potential mate in Ueno, Tong Tong, died in 2000, without issue. Playdates with pandas in Mexico were also unsuccessful. At the end, he probably just stopped trying. Ling Ling was 22 when he died - roughly equivalent to 70 human years...