Pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang welcomed back to China with a guard of honour after travelling from Scotland
BELOVED pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang were welcomed with a guard of honour after completing their epic homecoming journey from Scotland.
Footage showed lines of excited staff waving and cheering as a lorry carrying the giant bears arrived at their new digs in China following their 12-year stay at Edinburgh Zoo.
The furry animals had spent a 5,000-mile flight to Chengdu on a cargo plane inside specially built crates, which were then offloaded into the truck for the final leg of their gruelling trip.
Clips revealed the pair — also known as Sunshine and Sweetie — later chomping on bamboo as they relaxed in new surroundings at the Giant Panda Conservation and Research Centre in Sichuan.
Placed in quarantine following the 13-hour flight, they were said to be bonding with a keeper known as “Daddy”.
Centre bosses said: “After a period of adaptation, the pandas have gradually accepted their new environment and new things.
“Sunshine is as sunny and cheerful as ever. Tian Tian prefers quietness, except during meals.”
Videos posted on Chinese social media site Weibo also captured the duo’s best moments from their Scots adventure.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland chief executive David Field told Chinese media: “We’re going to miss Yang Guang and Tian Tian dreadfully.
“We hope we can continue to follow their lives and share that with the many people who’ve fallen in love with them.”
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Edinburgh Zoo bosses paid Chinese authorities £7.5million to “rent” the bears in 2011.
Following their arrival that December they were visited by an incredible seven million people.
We told how the duo were destined never to mate as female Tian Tian resented her male companion as soon as they were paired.
They are set to be replaced by a new star attraction — the UK’s only Queensland koalas.
