Twin panda cubs make first public appearance with mother Ying Ying in Hong Kong

(21 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hong Kong - 21 March 2025
1. Various of giant panda mom Ying Ying and her cubs cuddling and playing in front of cameras at Ocean Park
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Iding Chung, Fun Learning Manager, Ocean Park:
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“So we have been showcasing the cubs to our public for a while and tomorrow Ying Ying will be spending time with the cubs in front of the public as well. So the public will also have a chance to see the mother, the bounding between the mother and the cubs. It’s a very significant step for us to let the cubs learn new experience and so the public will be enjoying seeing them together as well.”
3. Exterior of the panda facility
4. Various of people lining up outside giant panda facility
SOUNDBITE (Cantonese) Michael Fu, Hong Kong resident and park visitor:
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“They are really really cute and growing fast. I know today is their last day on their own, by themselves and starting from tomorrow, they will be put together with their mum Ying Ying.”
5. Various of Ying Ying playing with cubs
STORYLINE:
It's the celebrity family who've won hearts all over the world.

Mother panda Ying Ying is enjoying being reunited with her babies who are now very boisterous 7 month old youngsters.

The two young cubs, known just as “elder sister” and “little brother” appeared before the media in an enclosure with their mother on Friday 21 March.

The public will be able to view the family together from tomorrow, Saturday 22 March.

The young male cub was the most active, rolling around with his mother in a glass-walled enclosure at Ocean Park, an amusement and wildlife venue.

The pair made their first public debut at Ocean Park last month.

Ocean Park has started a special Instagram page for their pandas and the twins are particularly popular among the locals.

The cubs are the first locally born giant pandas and their birth last year made Ying Ying the world's oldest first-time panda mom in captivity.

Hong Kong has six pandas, including the twin cubs, their parents, and two other adult pandas sent by Beijing, which arrived in Hong Kong in late September.

All of the city's pandas are staying at Ocean Park.

The city has the largest number of pandas in captivity outside of mainland China.

Ying Ying and the father Le Le, are the second pair of pandas gifted by Beijing to Hong Kong arriving in 2007.

The first pair were An An and Jia Jia who arrived in 1999 as gifts shortly after the former British colony returned to China in 1997.

Pandas are considered China’s unofficial national mascot.

The country’s giant panda loan program with overseas zoos has long been seen as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power diplomacy.

AP video by Alice Fung

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