Pandas board plane for Olympics

BEIJING, May 24 (UPI) -- Eight giant pandas boarded a plane Saturday in Wolong, China, bound for Beijing and the Summer Olympics festivities, officials said.

The fuzzy passengers were to spend 2 1/2 hours on a China Southern Airlines Boeing 747 getting to their new digs at the Beijing Zoo, Xinhua reported.

The China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Wolong was partially marred by the May 12 earthquake that hit China, but all of the Olympic pandas survived without injury, said Wang Pengyan, deputy head at the center.

"The pandas have recovered from any nervousness about the quake and are all in good condition," he told the state-run Chinese news agency.

Of the at least 60,000 people who died in the quake, five were employees of the Wolong panda center, Xinhua said.

It is reported two pandas were wounded in the quake and four of six that disappeared have been found.