Berlin-born pandas head for a new life in China
Pit and Paule made history as the first panda cubs born in Germany. Now they are joining other pandas from around the world and heading to China. Beijing leases pandas to more than 20 countries worldwide in a practice known as "panda diplomacy."
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00:00 Panda twins Pit and Paul are leaving Berlin Zoo and moving to Chengdu in China.
00:06 In 2019 they became the first ever pandas born in Germany while their parents were on
00:12 loan and they've been a big hit.
00:16 I love pandas.
00:18 It's looking so interesting.
00:25 Only cubs born whilst their parents are on loan must leave for China within four years.
00:31 The pandas will travel back to the Chengdu panda base where they have enclosures, which
00:36 are actually very similar to the ones in Berlin.
00:39 The advantage for them there is bamboo.
00:42 It doesn't grow as well in Germany as it does in Sichuan, where it grows like a weed.
00:48 In Sichuan they will always have an all-you-can-eat buffet of their favourite varieties of bamboo.
00:55 Pit and Paul aren't the only ones heading back to China.
00:58 In the past month, pandas in the US and Scotland have been returned too.
01:03 This year is quite a significant year in the history of panda diplomacy because we have
01:10 pandas from quite a few countries returning to China.
01:14 It's quite interesting and significant that Xi Jinping said in August that he's aware
01:21 of the continued interest of the United States to host pandas from China.
01:27 And with that comes a political demand.
01:31 That is an expression of China's interest and to some extent condition of friendly relations,
01:37 if it hands out any more pandas.
01:40 So you have that political component as part of panda diplomacy by design.
01:47 Germany says it will continue to collaborate with China on pandas.
01:51 But in the meantime, these cute, fluffy diplomats will be sorely missed in Berlin as they head
01:56 back to their ancestral lands.
01:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]