By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters) - A pair of giant pandas from China's fog-shrouded mountains reached Taiwan on Tuesday, a symbol of improved relations between the political rivals.
Panda-decorated baggage trucks drove out to collect the crates carrying Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan from the cargo hold of a jumbo jet that landed minutes earlier at north Taiwan's major airport.
The pandas, whose names said together mean "unite," will take a police-escorted ride to the Taipei city zoo, where huge crowds are expected once a month-long quarantine period is over.
China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. It has vowed to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary, but ties have improved since China-friendly Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May.
"This is a continuation of a trend that became apparent when Beijing formed a policy to win hearts and minds in Taiwan no matter what," said Lin Chong-pin, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan, referring to the gift from China.
Beijing has given goodwill pandas to nine countries, including Japan, North Korea, the United States and the former Soviet Union, since 1957.
China had offered the pandas to Taiwan as a goodwill gift in 2006 as part of a charm offensive after decades of sabre rattling. Taiwan's then anti-China president refused to accept them.
"The pandas take 1.3 billion of mainland people's blessing to Taiwan and will sow the seeds of peace, unity and fraternal love there," Zheng Lizhong, deputy chief of the Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a farewell ceremony in Sichuan province.
Pandas can only be found in the wild in China where they are rebounding from the brink of extinction, but not yet out of the woods -- in large part because of difficulties in producing cubs.
The Taiwan zoo, which will be their new home, will try to mate the pair and may return any cub for tender loving care back in China, a zoo official said last month.
Vendors near the zoo are looking to make money by selling look-alike stuffed animals and mobile phone ornaments.
After the quarantine period ends, as many as 30,000 visitors will be allowed to file past each day to see the pandas' T$300 million (6.3 million pound) garden-like enclosure.
Last week, Taiwan and China launched direct daily passenger flights, new shipping routes and postal links for the first time in six decades. China has also offered Taiwan investors on the mainland $19 billion in financing over the next three years amid the global economic downturn.
But many Taiwan citizens would prefer China remove missiles aimed at the island and let it join international organisations such as the United Nations instead of offering money or animals.
The 4-year-old pandas have been living at a breeding base in Sichuan, neighbouring Tibet, for several months. Their previous home, the Wolong Nature Reserve, was damaged in the earthquake that struck Sichuan on May 12, killing more than 80,000 people.
(Additional reporting by Yu Le and Nick Macfie, Editing by Dean Yates)
