Panda pair makes debut with rousing welcome

Fruitful cooperation

Over the past three decades, cooperation between China and San Diego Zoo has been fruitful, helping increase survival rates for panda cubs from around 10 percent to more than 90 percent.

In an interview with NBC 7 San Diego that aired on Thursday, Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng said the pandas "reflect our two peoples' aspiration for friendship and exchanges, and also the world's longing for peace and cooperation".

"I encourage our American friends to care for China-US relations just as you care for pandas, cherish the friendship between our two peoples just as you cherish pandas, and protect world peace just as you protect pandas," Xie said.

" (Children) were taken to the zoo to see pandas by their parents. They become parents, and they are taking their kids with them to the zoo to see pandas," Xie told China Daily.

At the Panda Ridge opening ceremony on Thursday, Newsom said this is a celebration of common humanity and the things that bind both China and the US together.

"This is about something much deeper, much richer, than just the two beautiful pandas we celebrate," Newsom said.

Xie said China-US cooperation on panda conservation will not cease, people-to-people exchanges and subnational cooperation will not stop. And once opened, the door of China-US friendship will not be shut again.

"We warmly welcome Californians and other American friends to go to China, and see firsthand how incredible the home country of pandas is," he said.