Macau FDC on "Giant Pandas"

First Day Cover
首日封
Sobrescrito de 1.º Dia

Macau

Pandas Gigantes

Giant Pandas

Date of Issue : 18 December 2010

At the ceremony in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region on 19 December 2009, President Hu Jintao announced that the Central Government had decided to send a couple of giant pandas to Macau.

The pairs of giant pandas coming to Macau is a male and a female code-named 717 and 710 respectively, bred in Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Born on 4 August and 26 July 2008 respectively, the male panda (code name: 717; infant name: Shuxiang) weighted 158g and the female (code name: 710; infant name: Qimiao) 132g at birth; they weighted 58kg and 48kg respectively when selected.

A "Giant Panda Naming Contest" was held in June 2010 to invite Macau residents to offer panda name suggestions, and finally "Kai Kai" and "Xin Xin" were chosen as the names of the couple of giant pandas coming to Macau. The names embody Macau citizens wish that the pair of giant pandas be happy living in Macau, and that all Macau citizens be as happy as the pandas' names sound.

A very sudden stamp issue from Macau, and so there was no special cancellation for this issue. I personally like this stamp issue very much.