Chapultepec Zoo celebrates 35th birthday of panda Xin Xin in Mexico City

The Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City on Sunday celebrated the 35th birthday of the giant panda Xin Xin, who is the oldest among the rare Chinese animals living overseas.

Xin Xin is the grandchild of two giant pandas, Ying Ying and Bei Bei, who were presented to Mexico by the Chinese government in the 1970s. Currently, the female panda is the only giant panda in Latin America.

A 35-year-old panda is roughly equivalent to a 110-year-old human.

The Chapultepec Zoo has always taken good care of Xin Xin by building an air-conditioned house for her, growing bamboos to ensure pandas' adaptation to local climate and food, and adding Cactus leaves, a local specialty, into her diet.

The zoo prepared a birthday cake, fruits and fresh bamboos for Xin Xin, and hundreds of Mexicans came to the zoo to attend the birthday celebration, many of whom wrote down their best wishes to her.

"We know that Xin Xin is going to celebrate her 35th birthday. If I remember correctly, it may be on Monday? We are very glad to see her up close. Usually, we don't see her every time we come. I'm so excited," said a local resident.

"Today is Xin Xin's 35th birthday. From my outfit, you can see that I'm a panda fan," said another one.

"What I wrote for her is 'Happy Birthday to You, Xin Xin' from Santiago," said a boy.

Chapultepec Zoo celebrates 35th birthday of panda Xin Xin in Mexico City

Chapultepec Zoo celebrates 35th birthday of panda Xin Xin in Mexico City

Chapultepec Zoo celebrates 35th birthday of panda Xin Xin in Mexico City

Chapultepec Zoo celebrates 35th birthday of panda Xin Xin in Mexico City

Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Friday called on China and France to jointly promote multilateralism and cooperation.

Raffarin is currently in the Chengdu City of southwest China's Sichuan Province, the second stop of French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to China from Wednesday to Friday.

Macron's visit is a significant opportunity for the two major powers to rebalance bilateral trade ties, and also a chance for them to redefine a vision for global governance, Raffarin told China Global Television Network (CGTN).

Noting that China and France are both peace-loving countries, Raffarin said they must work together to contribute to world peace and promote multilateralism. "France and China are peace-loving nations. The Chinese people have never waged a war outside their borders -- they have fought only when attacked. China can speak for peace, and so can France, which managed to make peace with Germany despite the many tragedies that occurred during three wars. We are peaceful peoples, and therefore we must contribute together to world peace," said Raffarin.

"Both China and France support a multilateral global governance system. We want to reform multilateralism because today's rules are still those of 1945. It has been a long time since the UN and other international institutions were created. They must be reformed and modernized, while preserving the ambition of multilateralism to uphold world peace. From this perspective, Sino-French cooperation is in the interest of both countries -- and also in the interest of the world and of global peace," he added.

Raffarin said he expects more cooperation between China and Europe, and called for China's support in ending the Ukraine crisis.

"We clearly need to make progress in China-Europe cooperation. We must also make commercial progress by increasing cooperation between our industries -- including more Chinese components in European products, and more European components in Chinese products. We have progress to make, but the path has been set by the two heads of state. A new path has been opened for more balanced development. And of course, what is very important is that a war is now being fought in Europe -- in Ukraine. We need China's peaceful engagement to help the world find a way toward peace, in this conflict as well as many others. Peace is at the heart of our commitments -- it is China's commitment, and it is also France's," said Raffarin.

Former French PM urges China, France to jointly promote multilateralism, cooperation