Wanted: Chinese teacher and boyfriend for US-born panda

CHENGDU:A panda-breeding center in Chengdu, Sichuan province, is looking for a Chinese language teacher for one of the two pandas due to arrive from the United States on Friday.

Tai Shan, a panda at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, USA, reaches for  an apple on his farewell frozen cake on Jan 30, 2010. [AP]

The pandas, Mei Lan, 3, and Tai Shan, 4, who were born and raised in zoos in Washington, will land at the Chengdu Shuangliu Airport tomorrow afternoon.

"Mei Lan has been living in the United States since she was born, and she must be unfamiliar with Chinese, especially the Sichuan dialect," said Huang Xiangming, director of the animal management department of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

The base has also asked the public to choose a "boyfriend" for Mei Lan, as she had reached the mating age, he said.

The center dedicated a Web page on popular Internet portal Sina.com on Jan 28 to Mei Lan.

"She will be taught Chinese with a Sichuan dialect. She will become familiar with some simple phrases," Cui Kai, a worker at the base told the Associated Press. "For example, she will be taught the phrases for returning to the cage or coming out from the dormitory."

According to Yang Feifei, an official in the base, 14 young people from different parts of the country have applied for the job.

Mei Lan has been living at Zoo Atlanta since she was born in September 2006. Her parents, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, arrived in Atlanta in November 1999.

Tai Shan, who was born in July 2005 and raised at the National Zoo of Washington DC, will later go to the Bifengxia Base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) in Ya'an, Sichuan province.