Photos: Tokyo’s longest surviving panda cub Xiang Xiang makes public debut

Eager crowds thronged on Tuesday for the first glimpse at Xiang Xiang, the longest surviving panda cub at Tokyo's Uneo Zoo in three decades. The cub made a public debut having turned six-months old.

Updated on: Dec 20, 2017 11:10 AM IST

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Updated on Dec 20, 2017 11:10 AM

Tokyo’s new idol, Shan Shan or Xiang Xiang, the longest-surviving baby panda in nearly three decades at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo munched on bamboo and cuddled with her mother, Shin Shin, while adoring visitors squealed, “She’s cute,” and took pictures during her public debut after turning six-months old. (Yoshikazu Tsuno / REUTERS)

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2,000 lucky winners of a Japanese lottery of 18,000 people were the first to get a live glimpse of the panda cub on Tuesday, but others had to settle for watching the cub and her mum on video livestream. The healthy female cub was born in June, five years after her mother lost another cub within days of its birth. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)

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Schoolchildren look into an enclosure holding Xiang Xiang (R) and her mother Shin Shin (L) at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on December 18, 2017. The panda toddler, small enough at birth to fit in the palm of a hand, now has typical panda markings and weighs around 12 kilograms. Her name, written with the Chinese character for fragrant, was chosen from more than 322,000 suggestions submitted by the public. (AFP)

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Xiang Xiang (L) and mother Shin Shin (R) in their enclosure during a press preview at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. Shin Shin and her partner, Ri Ri, arrived from China in February 2011 and went on view soon after the following month’s devastating earthquake, offering a scrap of good news for an anguished nation. (Toru Yamanaka / AFP)

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Visitors leave Xiang Xiang’s enclosure after a public viewing at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. Hundreds of fans thronged for a glimpse of the cub, decorating themselves with panda motifs. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)

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Customers browse through panda themed goods at a souvenir shop at Ameyoko shopping district near Ueno Zoo. “For me, the panda is the king of the zoo,” said Takamichi Masui, 50, who queued nearly three hours to be the first person to see Xiang Xiang. December 23 will be the first public holiday when large crowds are expected to turn up to meet the cub. (Shizuo Kambayashi / AP)

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Panda diplomacy sometimes offers a touch of friendship to Sino-Japanese ties, often strained by the bitter legacy of World War Two. Wang Wan, the wife of Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua, joined Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (R) at an advance viewing. “This year marks the 45th anniversary of the normalisation of ties between China and Japan. I think the birth of Shan Shan - pronounced Xiang Xiang in Chinese - is truly auspicious,” Wang said. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)