Panda antics in D.C.

January 24, 2001

On Jan. 10, Mei Xiang (may-SHONG), a 2-1/2-year-old female giant panda, and Tian Tian (tee-YEN tee-YEN), a 3-1/2-year-old male, made their first public appearance at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. Visitors stood in line for hours to see the pandas, which are on loan from China for the next 10 years - for $1 million a year. Television crews provided live coverage of the event. A website allows for Internet viewing of the energetic pair. See: panda.si.edu/pandacam.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Publishing Society