This Day, That Year

Item from Dec 12, 1990, in China Daily: Chinese zoologists are offering a unique Christmas gift to wildlife-lovers by successfully breeding and raising - for the first time in the world - giant panda twins in the Chengdu Zoo in Sichuan province.

Their birth through artificial insemination and breeding by scientists and workers at the Chengdu Zoo and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, marked a breakthrough in the research and protection of the rare animal.

Since the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding was set up in Sichuan province in 1987, with six hungry and sick pandas rescued from the wild, the base has established the world's biggest captive breeding population, with 176 pandas, as of last year.