Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun eats bamboo in San Diego Zoo in San Diego, the United States, April 6, 2019. The San Diego Zoo in the U.S. state of California held a special ceremony on Saturday to kick off a three-week farewell event for two giant pandas. Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun and her son, six-year-old Xiao Liwu, will leave the zoo in late April and be sent back to China, as the zoo's conservation loan agreement with China has ended. (Xinhua/Li Ying)

by Xinhua Writers Tan Jingjing, Gao Shan

SAN DIEGO, United States, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The San Diego Zoo in the U.S. state of California held a special ceremony on Saturday to kick off a three-week farewell event for two giant pandas.

Twenty-seven-year-old female giant panda Bai Yun and her son, six-year-old Xiao Liwu, will leave the zoo in late April and be sent back to China, as the zoo's conservation loan agreement with China has ended.

According to the zoo, their staff are working with their colleagues in China on future panda conservation and research.

The zoo's giant panda program is the first joint research program established between China and the United States as early as in 1994, said China's Consul General in Los Angeles Zhang Ping.

"Like other joint giant panda research and conservation programs in the United States, this program has not only promoted the friendship and understanding between the Chinese and American people, but also pushed forward the bilateral collaboration and joint research on protection and conservation of endangered species of wildlife and biodiversity," he said.

Erica Kohler, director of operations of the San Diego Zoo, told Xinhua it is sad to see the two pandas leaving for China. However, it is also a time to celebrate the successful collaboration with China on the joint research of panda breeding and wild life protection.

Dubbing the pandas "the friendship ambassadors" from China, she said Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu attracted about 2 million visitors to the zoo each year.

As the first panda on loan, Bai Yun, arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1996. The cuddly panda soon became an iconic image of the zoo and one of the most popular animals. The name of her son, Xiao Liwu, means Little Gift in English.

Gaylene Thomas, animal care supervisor of the San Diego Zoo, told Xinhua that they learned a lot from the giant pandas and gathered data from them.

Thomas said as a great mother of six baby pandas, Bai Yun has a very good character and is very easy-going.

"We are very proud to have the opportunity to be with them for the past 20-odd years," she said.

Currently, the zoo is busy preparing for the pandas' travel back to China and trying its best to make them feel comfortable during the trip, Thomas added.

Many zoo visitors lined up to say goodbye to the pandas, and wrote down their best wishes on cards and posted them on a friendship wall set up in front of the panda exhibition halls.

"The pandas were like our family members, and visiting them were part of our lives over the past 20-odd years," Margaret Schmitz, a San Diego native, told Xinhua. She took her three kids to the zoo on Saturday to say goodbye to Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu.

Schmitz said her kids grew up together with the pandas, and were used to being together with them.

"It is hard to say goodbye. We will miss them much. Hope to visit other pandas in the United States, and expect to visit China one day to unite with giant pandas," she added.

"They are so adorable, and they are always happy and satisfied with their easy lives. We had great joy every time we visited them," said Terry Richardson, another visitor who drove several hours with her husband from Lancaster to San Diego just to bid farewell to the giant pandas.

Pandas have bridged U.S.-China cultural exchanges, and unite us together, said Richardson, expressing the hope that the two countries work out an agreement in the future to have the pandas visiting the United States again.

The farewell celebration will run through April 27.

The San Diego Zoo is globally recognized and a San Diego icon by hosting more than 4 million guests each year.