Japan’s 3-month-old baby panda finally has a name
This Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017 photo released by Tokyo Zoological Park Society, shows a female giant panda cub on the 100th day since her birth, at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. The baby giant panda now has a name: Xiang Xiang. (Tokyo Zoological Park Society via AP)
TOKYO — Japan’s baby panda now has a name: Xiang Xiang, or fragrance.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said Monday the 3-month-old giant panda is called Shan Shan in Japanese, or Xiang Xiang in Chinese.
The name, whose Chinese characters mean fragrance, was chosen from more than 320,000 suggestions and was approved by Chinese authorities.
The Ueno Zoo in Tokyo says the panda is healthy and growing rapidly. She weighs 6 kilograms (13 pounds) and measures 65 centimeters (26 inches) long, nearly twice as big as she was a month ago.
Videos released last week showed the fluffy black-and-white cub crawling, and some teeth coming in.
Xiang Xiang was born on June 12 to the zoo’s resident giant panda, Shin Shin.
