Tribune News Network
Doha
The Ministry of Municipality, represented by the Public Park Department, announced the arrival of two giant pandas — Soraya and Suhail — to Qatar as a gift from China on Wednesday on the occasion of hosting the World Cup 2022, within the framework of strengthening the relationship between the two countries.
What distinguishes this event is that Qatar is the first country in the Middle East in which the giant pandas have arrived. Qatar is the 20th country in the world that has the giant pandas. The giant pandas are going to be taken care of by an international team of doctors and specialists in Giant Panda Medicine.
Director of the Public Parks Department Eng. Mohammed Ali Al Khori revealed the role of the Ministry of Municipality in building the park of the two giant pandas near Al Khor Park, Al Bayt Stadium and both municipalities of Al Khor and Al Thakhira in line with the highest international specifications and standards. It is 35 km away from Doha.
He said the total area of the park project reaches 120,000 square metres. It includes a giant panda display and shelter, in addition to the green areas and service buildings. A medical facility is attached to the giant panda park to meet the needs of the animals at all times.
Al Khori pointed out that the public will have the opportunity to visit the giant panda park at the time of the launch of the World Cup 2022, after the quarantine for the two pandas ends .
He also pointed out that the panda park was designed as an idea from (home to home) since it is similar to the mountains inspired by the configuration of the panda’s original homeland, which is Minshan Mountains in the Chinese Province Sichuan, considering keeping a separate level for the pandas to preserve their special living nature.
It was taken into consideration while designing the panda park that it should be convenient to the climatic conditions of the panda and to provide parks and fun areas for them, in addition to providing paths for the visitors to watch the pandas. Bamboo on which the pandas feed were cultivated in a part of the park. Trees from Chinese forests were brought and cultivated inside the shelter.
It is expected that the panda park will be one of the most important tourist and leisure destinations that will attract visitors from inside and outside Qatar.
On his part, the Acting Director of Building Projects Department in Ashghal Eng. Jarallah Mohammed Al Marri said the works of the panda park were completed in coordination with the Ministry of Municipality.
Ashghal achieved about 2 million work hours. About 75 percent of the used materials were local such as iron and steel, electrical and mechanical tools, glass and other materials.
He added that the park was designed in line with the highest standards of quality and safety in accordance with the standards of the Global System of Assessing Sustainability (GSAS), since the designing and operational considerations were applied to achieve an environmental quality of 3 stars of energy preserving and Keeping the environment (Ging Ging) Panda meaning in Chinese language Shining Crystal, is the male panda. It was born on Sep. 19, 2018, it given the Arabic name Suhail which means the star in the sky.
(Si Hi) Panda meaning in Chinese "four seas” is the female panda. It was born on July 26, 2019, its Arabic name is Soraya which means ( a group of shining stars ). These two names have great significance in the Qatari culture.