Mainland scientists will begin next Tuesday to select a pair of giant pandas for Taiwan. The pandas will be chosen from 17 candidates.

The seventeen candidates, eight male and nine female, are all residents of the Giant Panda Breeding Center in Wolong in southwestern Sichuan Province.

On May 3rd, Director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Chen Yunlin announced that the Chinese mainland would give a pair of giant pandas as gifts to Taiwan.

(CRI August 8, 2005)