Lifestyle
???????Ocean Park in Hong Kong is experiencing a surge in visitors following the public debut of the city's first locally-born giant panda cubs on Sunday.
A wave of excitement has hit Ocean Park with the unveiling of its newest attractions -- the first giant panda cubs born in the city. The brother-sister pair drew large, enthusiastic crowds eager for a glimpse, significantly boosting attendance at the animal theme park.
"Super super excited to see them. I love their cute expressions," said a visitor.
"We're really excited to see the panda, because we've only ever seen it in a movie like Kung Fu Panda," said another visitor.
Currently, the panda twins have not been named. Hong Kong residents are encouraged to propose names for the cuddly twins.
The bears were born last August, becoming the first successfully born pair of giant panda cubs in Hong Kong. Their mother, Ying Ying, made history as the world's oldest first-time panda mother.
At birth, the female cub weighed approximately 122 grams, and the male cub weighed around 112 grams. Under the careful 24-hour care from the staff at the Ocean Park, both cubs have gained weight, now exceeding 10 kilograms each.
Hong Kong now has six pandas, the largest captive population outside mainland China.
The cubs are available for public viewing daily from 10:00 to 15:00, with up to 5,000 people expected to have the chance to see the cubs each day.
The surge in visitors is a welcome relief for Ocean Park, which posted a 9.2 million U.S. dollar deficit in the last fiscal year. The park had already seen an uptick in attendance following the December debut of An An and Ke Ke, two other pandas.
"We believe this city-wide panda promotion has really generated a lot of excitement from people around the world, around the region to come," said Paulo Pong, chairman of Ocean Park at a greeting ceremony held for the twin cubs on Saturday.
The key challenge, analysts point out, will be converting this initial surge of interest into a sustained increase in tourism and long-term financial stability for the park.