Last night was a memorable night for KLM and the Dutch as a whole. Two pandas arrived on an inbound flight from China and will be at the Ouwehands Dierenpark in Rhenen.

Photograph taken by George Lu found on Flickr.com

Wu Wen and Xing Ya will be staying in the Netherlands for the next 15 years after a 16-year campaign on behalf of the zoo! Everyone’s fingers are crossed that these two pandas will fancy each other so that they can (maybe) have a cub! Although the chances are very small given the difficulty pandas have in mating, many of us have high hopes!

So how did the pandas get here? The zoo’s website says this:

Tijdens een staatsbezoek van Koning Willem-Alexander ( zijn vrouw was ook mee) en premier Mark Rutte (zijn vrouw was niet mee) kon de deal eindelijk worden beklonken. Minister Koenders die ook mee mocht in de kofferbak zei toen nog dat het ons land geen geld zou kosten. Misschien ons land niet, Ouwehands dierenpark Rhenen, wel.

I followed the KLM Facebook live transmission and there were mixed feelings about the arrival of the pandas and all the attention they were getting. It is true that the zoo has spent millions on the facilities and traveling for the pandas, and when the pandas arrived, there was a lot of “press time” for the guests.

For Dutch practice, you can watch the NOS live feed of the event!

The truth is the pandas are here and the zoo is expected to receive panda-visitors at the end of May (although no date has been set).

What are your thoughts about the pandas in the Netherlands?