Berlin zoo panda Meng Meng wins gold award

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The Giant Panda Global Award ceremony was held in Berlin on Thursday. Meng Meng, a female panda that arrived at the Berlin Zoo last year, won a gold award in the category of "Favorite Panda Outside of China".

The Giant Panda Global Awards, considered to be the Oscars of the panda world, was started by Jeroen Jacobs, who also founded the Giant Panda Global website, to invite global panda fans to vote for their favorite pandas and promote panda conservation work in China and abroad.

The voting began in December last year, with 81,035 Panda fans casting votes online by Jan. 4. Most of the clicks were from France, Indonesia, Austria, USA, Belgium, Canada, Germany and China.

Giant Panda Global Awards announced the results of "Favorite Panda Outside of China" on its official website, in which Meng Meng won the gold award. /Photo via Giant Panda Global Awards official website

Berlin Zoo pocketed three awards in total, including a gold in the "Panda Moment of the Year" category for the official opening of their Panda Garden, a gold in the category of "Favorite Panda Outside of China" for its panda star Meng Meng, and a bronze in the category of "Most Beautiful Panda Zoo Enclosure".

Meng Meng, together with a male panda Jiao Qing, arrived in Berlin Zoo in June 2017 from a panda breeding and research base in Chengdu, southwest China.

Berlin Zoo tweeted Meng Meng as the winner. /Photo via Twitter

Director of the Berlin Zoo Andreas Knieriem told Xinhua News Agency that he was pleased to see Meng Meng become the most popular panda outside China and he was grateful for the support of the Chinese Embassy for hosting the opening and welcome ceremony of their panda enclosure.