Timeline of Sino-French cooperation on pandas

In 1869, French naturalist and missionary Armand David introduced pandas, a unique species of bear that had been living in China for 8 million years, to the Western world, causing a huge sensation.

In 1973, the president of France proposed to then-prime minister Zhou Enlai to donate pandas to France. In December that year, two pandas named Li Li and Yan Yan from Baoxing, Ya'an city, Sichuan province, settled in Parc Zoologique de Paris.

In November 2000, the mayor of Aixles-Bains, Andre Darraidou, led a delegation to Baoxing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Armand David. During this visit, Baoxing county and Aix-les-Bains signed an agreement to become sister cities.

In November 2002, Ya'an and Aixles-Bains signed a friendship city agreement, bringing together two cities separated by 10,000 kilometers and three oceans.

In 2012, the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens and Beauval Zoo in France launched a 10-year international cooperative research project on giant pandas. The pandas Huan Huan and Yuan Zai came from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding to Beauval Wildlife Park, opening a new chapter in Sino-French cooperation on giant pandas. In 2022, the two sides extended their cooperation for another five years to 2027.

In August 2017, Huan Huan and Yuan Zai welcomed cub Yuan Meng, the first panda to be born in France. In August 2021, Huan Huan successfully gave birth to twin female cubs named Huan Lili and Yuan Dudu.

By June 2023, China had established scientific research cooperation relationships with 22 zoos from 19 countries, with a total of 64 pandas and their offspring residing overseas.

Yuan Meng, who was unable to come to China as scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will travel to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on July 25. This marks the substantial achievement of the collaborative efforts between China and France under the giant panda cooperation research agreement.