Japan’s baby panda now has a name: Xiang Xiang, or fragrance

By Abbey Westbury
September 25 2017 05:25 AM

CP521140188 — In this Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017 photo released by Tokyo Zoological Park Society, a female giant panda cub gets a dental checkup on the 100th day since her birth, at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. The baby giant panda now has a name: Xiang Xiang in Chinese, or Shan Shan in Japanese, announced on Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. The name, whose Chinese characters mean fragrance, is chosen from more than 320,000 candidates from the public and was also approved by the Chinese authorities. (Tokyo Zoological Park Society via AP)

TOKYO – Japan’s baby panda now has a name: Xiang Xiang, or fragrance.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announced Monday that the 3-month-old giant panda is called Shan Shan in Japanese, or Xiang Xiang in Chinese.

The name, whose Chinese characters mean fragrance, was chosen from more than 320,000 suggestions and was approved by Chinese authorities.

The Ueno Zoo in Tokyo says the panda is healthy and growing rapidly. She now weighs 6 kilograms (13 pounds) and measures 65 centimetres (26 inches) long, nearly twice as big as she was a month ago, according to the latest measurement marking the 100th day since birth.

Videos released last week showed the fluffy black-and-white cub crawling, and some teeth coming in.

Xiang Xiang was born on June 12 to the zoo’s resident giant panda, Shin Shin.

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