Pandas at Ocean Park | Hong Kong

Postcard
On Wednesday 12 April, the giant pandas Xing Ya and Wu Wen landed on Dutch soil. Soon they start a new life at Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen, Netherlands. There are an additional 120 pandas in zoos throughout the world. The postcard shows two pandas living in Ocean Park, Hong Kong.

The idea of pandas as gifts is known as 'panda diplomacy' and it has a long tradition in China. Panda diplomacy describes how the Chinese authorities let chosen governments keep pandas as a mark of respect between their countries. In the 1980s China moved away from 'gifting pandas' to countries, and instead started to loan them out.