A loan without a purchase option, but a loan renewed for four years. The pandas Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, lent by China to France since 2012, will be able to stay until 2027 within the zoo of Beauval (in the Loir-et-Cher). Originally, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi were to return home in 2022. But the health crisis disrupted everything and, ultimately, their stay in France will last four more years. This is one of the agreements made between the two countries during Emmanuel Macron's state visit to China last week.
During this trip, the Head of State was accompanied by a delegation of 80 people, including Rodolphe Delord, the CEO of the French zoo. "It's a minimum duration. If relations with China remain good as they are, there is no reason for them not to stay after this date,” Rodolphe Delord told the France 3 Centre-Val de Loire website.
Other good news: in addition to the extension of the loan, which is actually a rental, the price of the two pandas was halved during this presidential visit, confided Rodolphe Delord in the columns of La Nouvelle République.
Yuan Meng will soon be repatriated to China. He was originally due to leave France after his third birthday. But, here again, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned the calendar upside down. Yuan Meng, who will soon be 6 years old, however, does not move for nothing. In China, he will have to fulfill a great mission: to participate in the reproduction of his species.
