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SINGAPORE: About a thousand entries have been received in a nationwide contest to name two pandas from China.
The pandas will be on loan to Singapore for a 10-year period.
A judging panel, including China's ambassador to Singapore, will decide on their names based on the suggestions received.
Those names are expected to be announced in the coming months.
Some of the names which have been suggested include Mandarin names like "Xiang Qin and Xiang Ai", "Ping Ping and An An" and "Xin Fu and Kuai Le".
There also names such as "Ping Ping and Pang Pang" - Chinese for table tennis.
Others have suggested "Bi Bi and Ba Ba", which are Peranakan terms for male and female.
Even road names such as "Tiong and Bahru" have been thrown in.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore chief executive officer Fanny Lai said: "(When you translate) 'Tiong' from Hokkien into Chinese , (it) means 'zhong', (which can be taken to be short for) 'Zhong Guo' or China.
"(If you translate) 'Bahru' (which means new in Malay) into Chinese, it becomes "xin" which (can be taken to be short for) 'Xin Jia Bo', (or Singapore)".
Some children, when asked for their opinion, have interesting ideas.
"I (will) name it Rosie and Charlie. Because I like it!" one child said.
Another said "Furry and Hungry. Because they are furry and hungry."
"Pandy and Maxy because (they rhyme)," said another child.
The Pandas will arrive next year and can be seen at Wildlife Reserves Singapore's River Safari attraction when it opens in 2012.
"The mission of Wildlife Reserves Singapore is to use our wildlife as ambassadors for wildlife conservations, recreation as well as education so we hope to use the panda as a catalyst to talk about the endangered wildlife in China," Ms Lai said.
When the pandas arrive, they will be feeding on hedge bamboo, which they seem to prefer over other varieties of the plant.
And this is just one of four types that will be specially grown in Singapore to keep the pandas well fed.
-CNA/wk
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