A total of 184 giant pandas have been brought up from captive breeding throughout China, and about half of them have been claimed by individuals, enterprises and social organizations both from home and abroad, People's Daily Overseas Edition reports on Monday in Beijing.

Thirty people from around the world have adopted a total of 16 panda cubs, brothers and sisters of "Tuantuan" and "Yuanyuan", that live in a special enclosure in Sichuan's Wolong Nature Reserve in Southwest China. The pandas left their mothers on Friday to enter into a giant panda kindergarten, according to CCTV.

It is reported that a female Japanese journalist was the first ever person to adopt a panda. She has been to Wolong for many times for photos of lovely giant pandas and was very concerned about panda's life. She took the lead in donating money to China Conservation and Research Center of the Giant Panda in the late 1980s to aid the breeding of pandas.

Although Jiajia, the panda adopted by the Japanese woman, has been given to Hong Kong as a gift, the initial donor has kept up visiting Jiajia without interruption.

It is inconvenient for the over 70-year-old Japanese woman to come and visit Jiajia again. However, she has continued to provide the financial assistance in the past years, and as a result many others followed suit.

By People's Daily Online