Yuan Zai made public debut in Taiwan.jpg
"Yuan Zai", the first Taiwan-born baby panda, officially made public debut on Jan. 6, bringing in a throng of early morning tourists to the Taipei Zoo eagerly chanting superlatives for the cute baby.
Since "Yuan Zai" was born, the Taipei Zoo has been posting daily videos on social media, enabling people to track the panda's progress. Some videos showed "Yuan Zai" has developed muscles and was easily climbing up and down a wooden shelf. The zoo staff had designed special toys for "Yuan Zai" to play with.
From what can be gleaned from the baby panda's performance, "Yuan Zai" has successfully finished the A-level training program and was ready to meet the public, as the Taipei Zoo had promised. Around 5:30 am in the morning, tourists gathered to wait for "Yuan Zai". By 9:00 am, there was a queue of about 500 to 600 people from the zoo gate to the underground station.
When the Taipei Zoo opened its door at 9:00 am, tourists rushed to the Panda Pavilion to wait for a glimpse of "Yuan Zai." The baby panda made its public debut at 9:10 am. People cheered "So cute!" as "Yuan Zai" energetically climbed up and down the wooden shelf.
The Taipei Zoo had to remind the tourists to turn off their camera flash, lower their voices and avoid knocking on the glass when inside the Panda Pavilion so as not to frighten "Yuan Zai."
