Shanghai will get cuter and cuddlier just in time for World Expo 2010.

Ten giant pandas from the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province will be brought to the city and put on display during the Expo. The nature reserve will pick 10 "lively and strong" pandas. They are scheduled to be exhibited from March to November 2010.

A boy and his grandmother admire one of the two new pandas Zhuang Zhuang and Peng Peng on August 6, 2008 at Shanghai Zoo. Both arrived on a four-year-loan from Wolong Panda Research Center to mark the 2007 Special Olympics and 2010 World Expo, and met the public. (Shanghai Daily photo)

CCTV reported on August 7 that two giant pandas Zhuang Zhuang and Peng Peng were already borrowed from the Wolong Panda Research Center to show visitors coming to Shanghai during this year's Special Olympic Summer Games and the 2010 World Expo, and will return to the center in 2011. The zoo already has one female panda.

(Shanghai Daily November 20, 2008)