To celebrate the 17 percent population growth of pandas around the world over the past ten years, Korea’s panda tour will have an additional 200 paper-mache ‘mom and baby’ pandas. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — After a successful exhibition of the yellow rubber duck in Korea, 1600 paper-mache pandas have finally arrived in Korea, and will be exhibited around the nation until July.
On May 25, Buddha’s Birthday, the pandas was installed at Gangnam Station’s M Stage. The 1600 bears have been traveling around the world to raise the awareness about conservation efforts for near-extinct species such as pandas, whose total population was only 1600 at the time of the paper-mache tour’s initiation.
Lotte Department Store and Lotte World Mall spearheaded the tour’s visit to Korea, and will present photography of the 1600 pandas at famous places around the country through a project-dedicated website https://www.1600pandas.kr.
To celebrate the 17 percent population growth of pandas around the world over the past ten years, Korea’s panda tour will have an additional 200 paper-mache ‘mom and baby’ pandas.
From May 23 to June 30, 1600 paper pandas will appear in 7 cities in Korea. The pandas appeared in front of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts on May 23, and at City Hall Square on May 24. All 1800 mache pandas will be presented at the grass garden in front of Lotte World Mall in Seoul and at Seokchon Lake from July 4 to 31.
French artist Paulo Grangeon and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) initiated the paper-mache panda project in 2008, and the pandas have been to Paris, Rome and Hong Kong so far. Some pandas will be up for sale after the Korea exhibition, and profits will be donated to WWF Korea.
By J. W. Choi (summerchoi@koreabizwire.com)
