麻豆约拍

In 2008, panda-mania hit Taiwan when China gifted the country two giant pandas.

This practice known as 鈥榩anda diplomacy鈥� is thought to date back as far as the 7th Century.

Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan flew into Taiwan and became instant celebrities.

Eve Chen, curator of the Giant Panda House at Taipei Zoo says: 鈥淭hey were extremely cute and adorable. You could call them like the handsome and the beauty, like the Barbie and Ken in a panda.鈥�

Eve tells Gill Kearsley about their arrival and what it meant to Taiwan.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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(Photo: Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan in China. Credit: Visual China Group via Getty Images.)