Taipei - The Taipei Zoo will limit 22,000 visitors per day to view two giant pandas sent as a goodwill gift to the island from China, a spokesman said Wednesday. "We have decided to set the limit to avoid overcrowding and too much disturbance to the pandas when they go on public display beginning from January 26, the first day of the lunar Chinese New Year," said Jason Chin, spokesman of the Taipei Zoo.
He said each visitor must get a number tag before he or she can visit the Panda House and each will only be allowed to stay at the venue for no more than 10 minutes.
The 4-year-old Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan became the talk of the town almost immediately after they arrived in the zoo on December 23 from their Sichuan enclosure in China.
Chin said after a month-long quarantine, they will make their debut officially on January 26, but 500 children from poor families and minority groups will get the first glimpse of the bears on January 24.
He expected at least 60,000 visitors will show up per day to view the pair during the nine-day lunar Chinese New Year holiday.
Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names together mean "reunion," have adapted well to life at the Taipei Zoo so far, Chin said.
Chinese President Hu Jintao offered the two pandas to Taiwan as a symbol of friendship in 2005, but the offer was turned down by pro-independence former president Chen Shui-bian.
Chen's successor President Ma Ying-jeou accepted the offer, choosing to ignore the pandas' politically charged names. Some pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers are demanding new names for the bears because they hint at unification between China and Taiwan.
Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory.
