Celebrity Lin Ping Panda Going to China to Find Husband and Return

The giant panda born in Thailand, Lin Ping, will go to China in October to find a mate and then the couple will come back to stay in Thailand for 15 years, Foreign Affairs Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said on Friday.

 

CHIANG MAI – Lin Ping Chiang Mai’s celebrity panda is almost 4 years old now and its now time for her to travel to China, find a mate and have cubs.

Once she has the right husband, China will send Lin Ping and her mate back to Thailand. Chinese authorities will try their best to ensure that she will be back in Thailand within one year.

Lin Ping was born in Thailand on May 27, 2009 at Chiang Mai Zoo. She has become one of the most popular animals in Thailand

Once the star of a Thai reality show, the panda’s future has been a topic of high-level negotiation for months. Last year, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra asked then-Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to consider extending the panda’s loan contract which ends on its 4th birthday, May 27.

A breakthrough was announced Friday, when the Chinese Embassy informed Thai authorities that Lin Ping can stay in Thailand until October, said Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul. Lin Ping will then relocate to China, where authorities will find her a male partner, and the two will be allowed to return to Thailand to mate, he said.

“Normally every baby panda born overseas must return to China to breed,” Surapong said, but the Chinese made an exception due to close bilateral ties with Thailand.

Lin Ping was born in Thailand’s Chiang Mai Zoo to two adult pandas that were on loan from China. Her birth was front-page news in Thailand and the panda family starred in a much-loved but lethargic reality show that broadcast live from the pandas’ zoo habitat for almost three years.

China has not set a date for Lin Ping’s return to Thailand but will try to ensure it is within a year, Surapong said. She will be allowed to remain in Thailand for up to 15 years, at a cost of $1 million per year, said Surapong.

On her return, a new loan agreement will be made to allow Lin Ping to stay in Thailand for another 15 years,  which is longer than the 10-year period agreed for her parents, Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui. There is no indication what will happen when their loan term ends in October this year. The three pandas live in special enclosures at Chiang Mai Zoo.

“The new fee is four times higher,” he said. The old contract called for a $250,000 panda loan fee. “But (we) can accept that.”