Bidding farewell to the Adventure World Park Zoo in Japan, giant panda Xiong Bang arrived in Beijing yesterday at noon, setting foot in his ancestral home for the first time in his life.

Lan Jingchao, a zoologist from the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center, who escorted Xiong Bang on board the plane, said the 2-year-old male giant panda is in good condition and was at ease throughout the three-hour flight.

A Japanese zoologist also accompanied the panda on his trip back home.

After an overnight quarantine, Xiong Bang was expected to leave for the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, this morning, said Lan.

Xiong Bang was born to Yong Ming and Mei Mei, a panda couple leased by China to the Adventure World Park Zoo in western Japan's Wakayama prefecture in 1994 and 2000 respectively. The now 88.6-kilogram lively "boy" has grown from a baby cub weighing 190 grams.

Xiong Bang was the first male giant panda born in a foreign land to return to China this year, said Yu Jianqiu, deputy head with the giant panda breeding and research center.

In February 2004, a female panda, Hua Mei, born in the United States, returned to the prestigious Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province.

Xiong Bang was one of the 23 pandas residing overseas, according to the statistics released by the State Forestry Administration early this month.

During a 25-year period up to 1982, China presented 24 giant pandas as gifts to nine nations. In 1985, however, it decided to offer no more giant pandas as gifts and instead, the endangered animal can only go abroad by means of leasing and their cubs born on any foreign soil belong to China.

A solemn handover ceremony was held in the Adventure World Park Zoo on Sunday. A delegation led by Ma Jinchuan, deputy director of the Chengdu City Gardening Bureau, attended it.

Xiong Bang was sent to the Kansai International Airport in Osaka at 4 am yesterday and got on abroad around 9 am. The zoo prepared fresh bamboo for him, said Teruaki Hayashi, head of the breeding department of the Japanese zoo.

The panda won deep favor of Japanese people, and Xiong Bang has a lot of fans.

"We are sorry to bid farewell to him, and we will miss him. But we still hope he will enjoy the life in his hometown," he said.

Male pandas usually become sexually mature at 5 to 6 years old, so Xiong Bang will not immediately join China's giant panda breeding plan after his return home, said Yu.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2004)