A pair of giant pandas sent as a gift from the mainland to Taiwan arrived on the island yesterday in the latest sign of rapidly improving relations across the Straits.

The four-year old pandas - Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan - touched down at Taipei Taoyuan airport after a three-hour flight from Chengdu in Sichuan, with island residents watching spellbound as the journey unfolded live on local television.

The couple, with their combined name meaning "reunion" in Chinese, were carried aboard a special Boeing 747 plane of Taiwan's EVA Airways¹ with three pilots and 10 stewards² in line with "treatment for a head of state".

They left a breeding base in Ya'an of Sichuan at around 8:20 am yesterday and were taken on a truck to the provincial³ capital of Chengdu, about 120 km from Ya'an, and from there, left for the island by air.

Seventeen Chinese dove trees from the Beichuan Qiang autonomous⁴ county in Sichuan also arrived with the pandas. They were presented to express gratitude⁵ from earthquake victims to Taiwan people for their help after the May 12 devastation⁶.

The pandas arrived a week after expanded transportation and postal⁷ links across the Taiwan Straits started.

Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan "will sow the seeds of peace, solidarity⁸ and friendship on Taiwan's soil, with the good wishes of 1.3 billion mainland compatriots," said Zheng Lizhong, vice-minister of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office at a send-off ceremony at Chengdu airport.

Questions:

1. How old are the two pandas who were sent to Taiwan?

2. What does the combined name of the two pandas represent?

3. What type of trees were also presented along with the pandas?

Answers:

1. Four years old.

2. Reunion.

3. Seventeen Chinese dove trees.