Panda passion fuels Dutchman's dream

Tycoon Marcel Boekhoorn is on the way to fulfilling his dream of acquiring giant pandas

Sixteen years ago, when 56-year-old Dutch tycoon Marcel Boekhoorn decided to acquire the Ouwehands Zoo, about 90 km from Amsterdam, to sustain his passion for wildlife, he had two dreams to fulfill.

One was to inject investment and expand the visitor flow to the zoo, which boasts more than 3,000 animals in the picturesque town of Rhenen.

After an investment of about 40 million euros ($44.5 million), the number of visitors increased five-fold and the zoo, set up in 1932 after being converted from a chicken farm, receives almost one million visitors annually.

The second dream was to acquire two giant pandas.

"It has taken quite a long time to fulfill his second dream but we are excited that it is coming true," says Robin de Lange, director of the zoo during an interview with China Daily.

What makes de Lange and his boss so excited is that China agreed last October to send two giant pandas to the zoo after Dutch King Willem Alexander met President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

"This was his second dream when Boekhoorn bought the zoo," de Lange, who joined the zoo in 2003, recalled in his office beside the entrance of the zoo. Inside various models of animals are displayed and facing the door are photos of two pandas and their house, which is under construction in his zoo.

Already wealthy through strategic investments in sectors ranging from telecommunications and media to football, Boekhoorn was passionate about moving pandas to the Netherlands and he even persuaded former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok into writing a letter to the Chinese leadership. Over the years de Lange and his boss have been in close contact with Chinese officials, though there was no progress until last August, two months before the king traveled to China.

Then, Chinese embassy diplomats started talks with them over ways to emphasize the significance of the king's visit, a return visit after Xi's State visit to the Netherlands in March 2014. The Netherlands was the first European Union country Xi visited after he was elected as Chinese president in early 2013.

To prepare the agreement and follow up, De Lange says his zoo set up a panda taskforce, consisting of 4 to 5 persons.

The zoo director remembers the date of the agreement, Oct 26, but it was only two days beforehand that he was told that the president and the king could witness the signing ceremony between Ouwehands Zoo and the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association.

According to the agreement, two pandas, named Xing Ya (male) and Wu Wen (female), will be "loaned" to the zoo for 15 years. When the agreement was signed, the two pandas were both three years old.

In terms of number of visitors, Ouwehands Zoo isn't the most popular in the Netherlands.

But, it was the first to propose to receive pandas to boost friendship between the two countries.

When the agreement was signed last year, the zoo owner, Boekhoorn, said it was proof that long-term commitments can succeed.

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn