Looking for a new job?
Mei Lan at the Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Ga. Copyright Gene Blythe / AP
If you have a bachelor’s degree or higher, no history of infectious disease and good command of both English and Chinese languages you might just be what the Chinese government is looking for. The Chinese government is seeking out a Chinese language tutor for 3-year-old panda Mei Lan to help her cope with the life changing move from Atlanta, Georgia to Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan, China. She will arrive in China on Friday via a special FedEx flight which will also carry fellow 4-year-old panda Tai Shan, from Washington DC’s National Zoo. Tai Shan will be moved to the Ya’an Bifeng Gorge Breeding Base of Wolong National Nature Reserve, another panda breeding center in Sichuan.
Upon arrival Mei Lan will have a team of experts to help her with the transition to her new environment. She will be set up with a Chinese tutor, a new diet and even a matchmaker. The Chinese tutor, with a focus on Sichuan dialect, will help Mei Lan learn new phrases for getting around her new home. Mei Lan will also arrive with her favorite biscuits in tow to ease her into her new diet of ‘wotou’ (steamed bread made of corn and sorghum) and bamboo. Since pandas are known for being sexually inactive, Mei Shan’s care takers are on a mission to find a potential boyfriend. A website will be set up to allow the public to vote for her new suitor though her caretakers will have the final say in the actual suitor.
With the royal treatment like that, whoever said moving to a new country was difficult?
Written By Emily Supernavage.
