Eleven selected giant pandas are currently going through a period of "trial marriages" before the most matching couple are picked up for Taiwan.

Li Weiyi, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said here at a press conference Wednesday that the selected panda couple will be presented to Taiwan at a time agreed upon by both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

The final selection will be based on the "trial marriages" which test whether the couple could fit for each other, Li said.

The Chinese mainland offered Taiwan a pair of pandas as one of its goodwill gestures to compatriots in the island province at the end of a historic trip made by Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) or the Nationalist Party in Taiwan, in early May.

The process of giant panda selection commenced in early August. And the panda selection expert panel decided that the panda couple were to be formed from those giant pandas living in the Wolong center, the largest panda protection zone in China.

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2005)