A touching farewell ceremony took place at a rain-soaked amusement park in South Korea as a crowd gathered to bid adieu to Fu Bao, a beloved giant panda, before her departure to China. Fu Bao, born in 2020 at the Everland theme park near Seoul to pandas Ai Bao and Le Bao, has been a cherished attraction. Her parents arrived in South Korea in 2016 as part of a lease program from China.
China's practice of sending pandas abroad as a gesture of goodwill while retaining ownership has contributed significantly to the conservation of the species. Through conservation efforts in the wild and captive breeding programs, the panda population has grown from fewer than 1,000 to over 1,800 individuals.
