The giant panda fever continues in Taiwan as the number of visitors again reached the designated daily quota of 22,000 as of Thursday noon, according to the Taipei zoo.

The panda house opened to Taiwan public on Jan. 26, the first day of the Chinese lunar new year holidays. As the local weather finally changed from rainy to clear on Wednesday, the number of visitors soared in the last two days from the 18,899 on Tuesday.

The family that led the long queue came from central island's Zhanghua county. They said they arrived here as early as 4:30 a.m..

In addition to hot ticket sales, the zoo saw a daily turnover of more than one million New Taiwan dollars (about 29,800 US dollars) for souvenir selling on Wednesday, the best in the zoo's history.

The two giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, arrived at the zoo on Dec. 23 last year as presents offered by the mainland.

The zoo limits visitors to 22,000 each day so as to prevent the pandas from too much disturbances.

The mainland announced in May 2005 that it would give two giant pandas to Taiwan as a gesture of goodwill. Their departure was delayed for more than three years. Improved cross-Strait ties made their journey to Taiwan possible.

A zoo official said earlier that the two pandas adapted quite well to their new home on the island and they ate about 30 kg of local bamboos a day and slept around ten hours a day.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2009)