Giant pandas An An and Ke Ke wait to be loaded onto a plane at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 26, 2024. A pair of giant pandas gifted by the central government to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China departed on a flight from Sichuan Province to the HKSAR on Thursday morning.(Photo by Li Chuanyou/Xinhua)

A pair of giant pandas gifted by the central government to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China departed on a flight from southwest China's Sichuan Province to the HKSAR on Thursday morning.

The pair, An An and Ke Ke, departed from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at about 9 a.m. and are expected to arrive in Hong Kong at around 11:30 a.m., according to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

They are the third pair of giant pandas gifted by the central government to Hong Kong to mark its 27th anniversary of returning to the motherland. They are to join four others currently living in Hong Kong.

The new pair will settle at Ocean Park Hong Kong, according to a deal signed by the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda and Ocean Park Hong Kong.

Upon arrival, the two will be quarantined for 30 days, and then they will spend some time getting used to the new environment before being expected to meet the public in December.

An An, a male, and Ke Ke, a female, were both born in June 2019. The two are genetically unrelated, but have complementary characters, according to Li Desheng, deputy director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

On Wednesday, a farewell ceremony was held in the city of Dujiangyan for the pair. At the ceremony, the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda handed over the panda archives to Ocean Park Hong Kong.

"I'm very excited that I can accompany An An and Ke Ke to Ocean Park Hong Kong," said Paulo Pong Kin-yee, chairman of Ocean Park Hong Kong.

"On the plane, we have prepared carrots, apples and also bamboo from the hometown which the pandas love to eat," said Dong Li, a senior keeper with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

According to Dong, the two pandas will spend their journey in special transport cages, and he and the vet will be with them throughout the trip.

Under the joint care of experts from Sichuan and Ocean Park Hong Kong, the two pandas had undergone simulation training every day while in Sichuan, including preparing for the transport process and the conditions they will face when they arrive in Hong Kong.

"The two pandas are currently in good condition," said Cheng Yanxi, the vet with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda who accompanied the two pandas on Thursday.

Cheng expected to work in Hong Kong for two to three months to help the pandas fully adapt to the new environment.

To understand the new pandas' characteristics, food preferences and behavior, Ocean Park Hong Kong sent a keeper to Sichuan in July to let the pandas get used to his voice, scent and presence, and the keeper also carried out some basic care training.

The new pandas, who are used to eating bamboo from Sichuan, need to change their diet and they have been provided with bamboo from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

Ocean Park Hong Kong has said it transported bamboo from Guangdong to Sichuan so that the pandas could get used to the type of bamboo they will eat after arriving in Hong Kong.

Giant pandas will also be fed bamboo from Sichuan while in the transition period in Hong Kong. At certain times of the year giant pandas may have poor appetites, so fresh bamboo leaves would be shipped directly from Sichuan to Hong Kong.

The central government gifted Hong Kong with its first pair of giant pandas in 1999, however, both pandas passed away in 2016 and 2022 at the ages of 38 and 35, respectively. Jia Jia, which died at 38 in 2016, was the world's longest-living captive giant panda.

The central government gifted a second pair in 2007 and they had recently given birth to twin panda cubs.