Fifty years ago, the "star" life of giant panda in the United States

[Global Times Comprehensive Report] This year coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Giant Panda's arrival in the United States, and China and the United States have successively launched commemorative activities. In the 1970s, "Ping Pong Diplomacy" and Nixon's visit to China broke the "firm ice" of Sino -US relations for many years. As a messenger of peace, one male, one female, two pandas, Xingxing and Lingling came to the United States with the friendly willingness of the Chinese people in April 1972. The American people attach great importance and love for the panda messenger. Xingxing and Lingling enjoyed the general treatment of super stars, which also made their life full of interesting anecdotes.

Affairs "Grand Panda Fall"

In February 1972, after the US President Nixon and his wife ended their visit to China, they brought back good news from Chinese pandas to the United States, and the entire United States began to look forward to it. Especially the zoo in major cities in the United States, including many zoo in New York's Branks Zoo, expressed their hope that giant pandas can settle in their own house. All media are also curious about everything about Chinese pandas, and dolls with panda images have quickly become the favorite of children, and many shopping malls have sold the goods. At the time, the American media created a new word- "Grand Panda Fun" to describe the expectations of the United States for giant pandas.

On August 21, Washington, USA, the "little miracle" of giant panda cubs in the United States ushered in a two -year -old birthday. (Visual China)

Stars often have secrets, and giant pandas are no exception. President Nixon was also a super "fan" of Xingxing and Lingling, and he personally broke the news of their secrets to the media. This incident was accidentally discovered when the "Water Gate Incident" related archives were revealed. In order to completely reveal the truth of the "water gate incident", the researchers carefully listened to all the telephone recording of Nixon at the time. They were surprised to find that the White House had just settled the new home of the panda in the US National Zoo in the capital Washington Special Economic Zone. On March 13, President Nixon personally called the Washington Star editor, the editor -in -chief of the Overseas Edition, Krosbi Noy Si, tell him the news of the giant panda settled in the national zoo. Nixon disclosed for the first time that there are two giant pandas who are coming to the United States, one male and one female. On the phone, Nixon also broke the news of Krosby Neus, because the two giant pandas are young and do not know how to mate, so the Chinese side must stay more for a while to let them "observe and learn" the mating of other giant pandas process.

The Washington Star News quickly published this exclusive news that was highly noticed, but they did not disclose the source of the news. However, neither Nixon nor Krosby Neusce may not expect that the "water gate incident" broke out in June of the same year made their call recording still carefully studied after 30 years. Moreover, the news was still eye -catching after the news was exposed. Many media in the United States reported on topics such as "the files and" Nixon are interested in the life of giant panda couples ".

What to do if you don’t like to eat American bamboo

Xingxing and Lingling arrived in Washington Special Economic Zone on April 17. According to reports, it was raining that day, but more than 8,000 people still rained in the zoo to welcome them. On April 20, they made a first show in the National Zoo. This day was also designated as "Grand Panda Day", and 1972 was called "the Year of the Grand Panda" by Americans. More than 1 million people came to the zoo to watch giant pandas in the first month. The Americans were completely conquered by Xingxing and Lingling's cute image, but the zoo was worried about their dietary problems. Americans know that giant pandas from China love to eat bamboo, but they find that giant pandas are not interested in most of the bamboo in the United States. In order to take care of the panda, the National Zoo specially established a department responsible for the nutritional diet of the giant panda, hiring people to find bamboo to Xingxing and Lingling everywhere. Bamboo must be fresh, must not have withered leaves, no insecticides or other chemical components, and excretion of birds or other animals. These may be poisonous to giant pandas. When cutting bamboo, it is not possible to use automated tools such as gasoline power saws at the time, because gasoline residues will be harmful to giant pandas. The place where bamboo grows is also particular. You cannot be by the polluted water, nor can it be by the highway with a car tail ...

The zoo issued a help information to the society, asking the public to provide the source of fresh bamboo. Ms. Southern Gatovs in Maryland solved their urgent urgent. Ms. Namshi Tavz lived in Asia with her parents in the early century. Their family visited and liked China very much. After returning to the United States after retiring, Nanyi's father built a house in Maryland. The house was full of items they collected from the East. On the land near a hundred acres of houses around the house, Nanyi's mother planted bamboo because it reminded her of China, and this plant grows rapidly without having to take care of it. The zoo rushed over to see that these bamboo happened to be a variety of giant pandas. As a result, the zoo deleted a large number of bamboo leaves and bamboo branches at the bamboo garden in Nanshi's house every week for Xingxing and Lingling to enjoy. For the special feelings of China and the love of giant pandas, the Niangxi family has never charged the cost of zoo, and it will be consumed by the "guest" of China for free.

Later, as other giant pandas went to the United States one after another, some American zoo, including the national zoo, also began to open up bamboo gardens to try to grow bamboo for giant pandas, because the cost of buying or hiring people everywhere is too high to be too high. Essence According to reports, due to the unable to bear the high cost of raising giant pandas, the Atlanta Zoo also launched a social survey to consult the public whether a pair of giant pandas raised back to China. As a result, the local people resolutely opposed it, and in the end, the garden had to dispel the plan. Not just diplomacy

Although special "learning" before going to the United States, and pandas can be reproduced after 5 years old, after 10 years of repeated experiments, the National Zoo of the National Zoo allows Xingxing and Lingling to successfully conduct in 1983. The first mating. Americans also used the semen of another male panda from London to perform artificial insemination for Lingling. On July 21, 1983, Lingling gave birth to a male cub, but unfortunately, the cub died only 3 hours after surviving. Later, Xingxing and Lingling produced 4 cubs. In 1984, a cub was dead when he gave birth. In 1987, Lingling gave birth to the next pair of twins, but one died quickly due to hypoxia, and the other died in the infection after 4 days. The last cub between them was born in 1989 and died 23 hours after birth. During the period, every pregnancy -in -date childbirth of the giant panda attracted widespread attention from the American people and the media.

In 1992, Lingling, 23, died of heart failure. It broke the record of the longest survival time after leaving China after leaving China. In 1999, Xingxing, 28, died. Compared to the average life expectancy of Grand Panda, Xingxing had been considered old at that time. It suffered from a variety of diseases including kidney disease. In order to reduce the pain of Xingxing, the zoo implemented euthanasia for it.

American researchers have been effective through a series of experiments conducted by Xingxing and Lingling. In 2005, there were finally other panda cubs that successfully survived in the National Zoo. According to the agreement between China and the United States, the cubs that were born in the United States and grew up will return to the giant panda base in China after adulthood. The research of giant pandas conducted by American researchers also provided a lot of beneficial help to Chinese researchers. It can be said that the trip of Xingxing and Lingling 50 years ago not only opened a new situation for the diplomacy between China and the United States, but also made great contributions to the scientific research of giant panda. (Zhang Jiwen Wang Ziyan)

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