Giant panda to learn Chinese

A giant panda is to be given a language instructor to teach her Chinese when shes returns 'home' from the US.

Mei Lan, a three-year-old female at Atlanta Zoo, is being flown to China with Tai Shan, a four-year-old male at the National Zoo in Washington DC.

Huang Xiangmin, director of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, says they have set up a website to recruit volunteers to teach Mei Lan to understand Chinese instructions.

"The volunteer also has to be fluent in English, as Mei Lan may take some time to get used to the switch," he told the Sichuan News Network.

The research base also posted pictures of male pandas on the website, for people to vote for the best candidate to be Mei Lan's boyfriend, now she has reached breeding age.

Tai Shan, meanwhile, will be sent to the Ya'an Bifeng Gorge Breeding Base of Wolong National Nature Reserve.

Mei Lan and Tai Shan were both born to pandas who were loaned to American zoos by China. Under the terms of the agreements, both pandas were due to be returned to China when they were two years-old.

However, the Chinese government agreed to extend their stay after requests from their respective zoos where they were seen by millions of visitors.

Both pandas will be sent to China by Fed Ex in a special plane dubbed the Panda Express. They will spend the 14-hour flight inside a plexiglass cage, with their keepers nearby.

There are about 1,600 giant pandas living in China's wild, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu. Another 290 are in captive-breeding programmes worldwide, mainly in China.