奇速英语

旅美熊猫“宝宝”返乡

After a flight lasting almost 17 hours, an aircraft that left from Washington in the US with panda Bao Bao on board landed safely at Chengdu airport, in Southwestern China's Sichuan Province, at 6:59 pm local time on Wednesday.

Bao Bao, a 3-and-a-half-year-old female giant panda that had lived at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, left the United States on Tuesday afternoon.

The 200-pound animal will spend one month in quarantine(隔离) in a 100 square meter "apartment" for the returning overseas pandas in the Dujiangyan Panda Base. There she will be greeted by her new keepers from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda and get used to the accents of her new keepers and the local food.

She may have the chance to meet her brother for the first time—12-year-old Tai Shan, who returned to China from the US in 2010. Both are the offsprings(后代) of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. The parents still lived at the zoo in Washington.

It is not yet known whether Bao Bao will continue to live at the Dujiangyan center after her quarantine is over. She will join the giant panda breeding program after she reaches the age at which pandas mate—between 5 and 6 years old.

Bao Bao was born on Aug. 23, 2013. At her naming ceremony when she turned 100 days old, China’s first lady Peng Liyuan gave her the name Bao Bao, meaning “the precious treasure”. Peng Liyuan and the US first lady Michelle Obama sent video greetings too on that day.