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Thousands of giant panda statues will greet residents and tourists from Saturday in Hong Kong, where enthusiasm for the bears has surged following the birth of two cubs at a local theme park. 2,500 exhibits were displayed at the launch event of PANDA GO! Fest HK, the city’s largest panda-themed exhibition, at Hong Kong’s airport on Monday. They will be publicly displayed at the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, a popular shopping district, this weekend, before setting up their footprint at three other locations this month.
Ocean Park’s new panda exhibit
One designated spot is Ocean Park, home to twin cubs, their parents and two other pandas gifted by Beijing this year. The design of six sculptures made of recycled rubber barrels and resin, among other materials, was inspired by these bears. The cubs – whose birth in August made their mother Ying Ying the world’s oldest first-time panda mother – can meet visitors as early as February.
At a separate media preview event on Monday, the new pair of Beijing-provided pandas, Ann and KK, who arrived in September, appeared comfortable in their new home in Ocean Park. NN enjoyed eating bamboo in front of the camera and climbed one of KK’s installations. He is going to meet the public on Sunday.
The display reflects Hong Kong’s use of pandas to boost its economy as the Chinese financial hub works to regain its position as one of Asia’s top tourist destinations. The panda is considered the unofficial national mascot of China. The country’s giant panda loan program with foreign zoos has long been seen as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power diplomacy.
Hong Kong takes advantage of panda exhibitions to boost tourism
Representatives of Hong Kong’s tourism industry are excited about the potential impact of housing the six pandas, hoping that it will increase visitor numbers despite it being expensive to care for pandas in captivity. Officials have encouraged businesses to take advantage of the recession’s popularity to take advantage of opportunities in what some lawmakers have dubbed the “panda economy.”
The exhibition organizer also invited some celebrities, including musician Pharrell Williams, to create special-edition panda designs. Most of these special sculptures will be auctioned online for charity and the proceeds will be donated to Ocean Park to support giant panda conversation efforts. Ying Ying and the father of the twin cubs, Le Le, are the second pair of pandas gifted to Hong Kong by Beijing since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
The first couple was Ann and Jia Jia in 1999. Jia Jia, who died in 2016 at the age of 38, is the world’s oldest panda living in captivity. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the average lifespan of a panda in the wild is 14 to 20 years, while in captivity it is up to 30 years.
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