Hoong Kong — Jia Jia and De De are the first locally born giant pandas from Hong Kong, formally named and presented.
Tuesday’s announcements of the cubs, lovingly known as “Elder Sister” and “Little Brother,” came from Ocean Park, the theme park holding them, their parents, and two additional giant pandas imported from mainland China last year.
From more than 35,700 entries in a naming contest, the names were the winning recommendations from local citizens.
From the female cub’s name “Jia Jia,” the Chinese character “Jia,” has a message of support and a hint of family and a feeling of lucky grace. The park added, the name represents the wealth of families and the country as well as the people’s happiness.
From the name of the male cub, the Chinese character “De,” suggests to succeed and implies that Hong Kong excels in everything. De also suggests giant pandas possess virtues valued by Chinese people by having the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for virtue, the park claimed.
Given the cost of maintaining the creatures in captivity, some are wondering whether housing six pandas helps the park recover its operations. Last financial year, Ocean Park reported a 71.6 million Hong Kong dollar ($9.2 million) shortfall.
Starting May 1 in mainland China, the park noted a roughly 40% rise in visitor traffic and a 40% increase in total income. Pong, who believes the momentum of growth will last through summer, Halloween, and Christmas, added.
Pandas are unofficial national mascot of China. Long viewed as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power diplomacy, the country’s massive panda loan program with abroad zoos has
