The giant panda, Hua Mei, or literally China USA in Chinese, is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Thursday and join some 70 pandas at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection Research Centre in Southwest China's Sichuan Province the next day.

The 12-year loan agreement that brought her parents to San Diego in 1996 mandates that any of Hua Mei's offspring be sent to China after the panda bears turn 3 years old.

Poor weather and the SARS outbreak have delayed the black-and-white panda's return twice over two years.

Giant pandas are highly endangered due to loss of their native habitat. Only about 1,000 of them are thought to live in the wild. About 150 others live in captivity, with less than 20 of them outside of China.

(CCTV.com February 9, 2004)