S'pore to receive two giant pandas from China

[Piyopico]

The People's Republic of China revived panda diplomacy in the 1950s and has become known in recent decades for this practice. From 1958 to 1982, China gave 23 pandas to nine different countries.[1] One highlight of panda diplomacy was Chairman Mao Zedong's gift of two pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, to U.S. president Richard Nixon in 1972 after Nixon's historic visit to China. (Nixon responded by sending back a pair of musk oxen.) 20,000 people visited the pandas the first day they were on display at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. An estimated 1.1 million visitors also came to see them the first year they were in the United States, although Nixon himself reportedly never visited them.[1] The pandas proved to be wildly popular and China's gift was seen as an enormous diplomatic success. It proved to be so successful that British Prime Minister Edward Heath asked for pandas for the United Kingdom during a visit to China in 1974. As a result, Chia-Chia and Ching-Ching arrived at the London Zoo a few weeks later.[1]

 

By the year 1984, however, pandas were no longer used purely as agents of diplomacy. Instead, China began to offer pandas to other nations only on 10-year loans. The standard loan terms include a fee of up to US$ 1,000,000 per year and a provision that any cubs born during the loan are the property of the People's Republic of China.

 

From Wiki.

 

Dunnoe why they say "give" when it is a "loan for 10 years" and the costs is US$1M.............

 

 

[Albeniz]

actually, singapore has many human pandas. those not enough sleep ones.

 

熊猫一直以来都有两个心愿：

第一是想能够多睡一点，第二是.........（你们猜猜看）

Edited November 13, 2009 by Albeniz

[Alfisti168]

熊猫一直以来都有两个心愿：

第一是想能够多睡一点，第二是.........（你们猜猜看）

能够

[Ahwhye]

Gift? OWN? you tan gugu hor.....

T-loan niah, let you pple play play look see look see for few yrs only.....have to return one.....the 2 + offspring if there is any....

 

 

Hahaha! Yeah, no need bamboo, our sugarcane (kam jia jui) should be a good enough substitute!

 

But seriously, whatever the motives of Hu Jintao, I still think that it's a great gift to our nation! They're like national treasures man! I mean c'mon guys, our very own GIANT PANDAS man!!

 

[Ahwhye]

yeah, it woud be nice...how about something uniquely singapore ..... a dozen of those million-dollars ministars?

 

 

nothing is free in this world. do we have to give something back to china?