2 Chinese pandas to arrive in Denmark in April

COPENHAGEN – The Copenhagen Zoo says two giant black-and-white visitors are heading to Denmark as part of China’s so-called “panda diplomacy.”

Park manager Joergen Nielsen says the arrival of the pandas April 4 “is going be one of the biggest moments in the zoo’s 160-year-long history.”

Nielsen says the public will see the panda couple, from the zoo in China’s southwestern city of Chengdu, in the newly built, 160 million-kroner ($24.2 million) Panda House from April 11.

Nielsen said Wednesday Danish officials will officially open the enclosure a day earlier.

Denmark is latest country to receive the Chinese diplomatic gifts. Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen visited China in May and saw the pandas, considered to be symbols of Chinese cultural and political power.