Photo/Illutration Xiang Xiang, a popular giant panda born in Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, is now 5. (Provided by the Tokyo Zoological Park Society)

Xiang Xiang, a 5-year-old giant panda born in Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, will finally be returned to China on Feb. 21 after making her last public appearance on Feb. 19.

Seven cubs have been born at the zoo to date, but she is one of only two pandas born there who grew up old enough to be returned to China.

The other, Yu Yu, a male born in 1988, was transferred to the Beijing Zoo four years later.

Japanese fans were excited when Xiang Xiang was born in June 2017, the first cub birthed there in many years, and she quickly became a star attraction.

Since her father, Ri Ri, and mother, Shin Shin, were on loan from China, according to the pact between Chinese authorities and the Tokyo metropolitan government, China owns their offspring.

They had agreed that the date of her return to China would be decided after the cub turned 2.

Both sides decided to hold off and transfer Xiang Xiang to China in December 2020 since Tokyo was busy preparing for the Summer Games in 2019, when she turned 2. But then came the coronavirus pandemic, which made cross-border movements almost impossible.

After five postponements, she will now finally depart for China.

Japan owned Yu Yu since he was born to parents who were presented to the country as a gift from China.

But he was given to China in exchange for another male, Ling Ling, for breeding purposes.

Xiang Xiang has belonged to China from the beginning as her parents were loaned to Ueno Zoo.

When her parents came to Ueno Zoo on Feb. 21, 2011, the metropolitan government reportedly paid $950,000 (around 100 million yen) for the pair annually to the Chinese side in funds designated for the protection of giant pandas.

The metropolitan government would not divulge how much it now pays a year for renting the two, citing a confidentiality agreement.

Ueno Zoo and other Japanese zoos have borrowed giant pandas for research on breeding. The animal is on the brink of extinction, and the two countries have joined forces together for their preservation.

Xiang Xiang is expected to find a mate in China, where many eligible bachelors are still available, and breed.

Zookeepers confirmed for the first time in late January that Xiang Xiang has shown signs suggesting she is now ready for mating and breeding.

A female panda’s mating season lasts only several days a year, making breeding extremely difficult unless she pairs with the right partner.

There are only two adult males in Japan. One is her father, Ri Ri, and the other is Eimei at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture. Eimei, 30, will be returned to China on Feb. 22 after fathering more than a dozen cubs.

About 90 percent of giant pandas in captivity in the world live in China, meaning that Xiang Xiang will have better odds at finding a mate there than in Japan.

“It will be best for her to go to China for her future,” a Ueno Zoo official said.

Xiang Xiang will join a giant panda facility in Sichuan province close to the animal’s original habitat.

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