Four five-month-old pandas made their debut during the Chinese traditional new year to visitors to the panda breeding base in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province.

Yu Jianqiu, deputy director of the base, said visitors could usually only see adults, but in a bid to brighten up the Spring Festival holiday, the base decided to showcase the baby pandas in a glass-walled room, allowing visitors to see them eating, playing and sleeping.

Pandas usually matured at five years of age, but pandas of five months to two years were more active and handsome, said Yu.

Two of the baby pandas, which all weighed between nine and 11 kilograms, were twins, he said.

Occupying an area of more than 30 hectares, the Chengdu Panda Breeding Base has bred a total of 39 pandas. Sixteen were born in the last four years.

The panda, declared a "living fossil", is one of the world's oldest and most endangered species. Only about 1,000 pandas live in the wild mostly in western China's Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

(eastday.com Fabruary 2, 2003)