China
19:22, 16-Jul-2017
Panda gets special birthday cake at Berlin Zoo
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Male panda Jiao Qing, who was recently sent from China to Berlin along with female Meng Meng, on Saturday celebrated his seventh birthday with a special cake prepared by the German zoo's keepers.
Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed on July 12 to make China's new "special envoys" feel welcome in Berlin, as she and Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled two eagerly awaited giant pandas at the German capital's zoo.
China has previously given three pandas to Germany, but the last one, 34-year-old Bao Bao, died in Berlin in 2012 having become the oldest male panda in the world.
The zoo will pay 15 million US dollars for a 15-year contract to host the pair, with most of the money going towards a conservation and breeding research program in China.
Famed for its "panda diplomacy", China has dispatched its national treasure to only about a dozen countries as a symbol of close relations.
Export giants Germany and China have nurtured increasingly close economic ties, and over the last year they have also taken on the leading role in championing free trade as Donald Trump shifts the US away from market liberalization with his "America First" push.