Panda fever sweeps Taiwan

A Giant panda fever has swept Taiwan since a pair of pandas  from the Chinese mainland made their official debut at a  Taipei zoo Monday, the first day of Chinese Lunar new year.

The pandas, each weighing about 107 kg, completed a month-long quarantine that began when they arrived on Dec. 23.

The pair came from a nature reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province as gifts from the mainland and became "sweethearts" of the island.

The city government estimates the pandas will attract about 6 million visitors to the zoo annually,

The mainland announced in May 2005 that it would give two giant pandas to Taiwan as a gesture of goodwill. Their departure was delayed for more than three years. Improved cross-Strait ties made their journey to Taiwan possible.

Giant pandas are among the world's most endangered animals. There are about 1,590 pandas living in China's wild, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu. Through 2007, there were 239 captive bred giant pandas in the country.