This 'n That Thursdays: The Panda Project

Hong Kong is in the midst of an amazing panda invasion!  A total of 1,600 papier mâché pandas created by French sculptor Paulo Grangeon will be on display at various locations in Hong Kong during the month of June.  The exhibit will raise awareness about convervation and sustainability by focusing on the declining wild panda population, which is estimated to number about 1,600 at this time.  Grangeon created this project in 2008 in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund in France.  The pandas are on a year-long world tour, and have already been on display in France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and Taiwan.  The director of the project, SK Lam, was also the creative force behind the giant floating Rubber Duck in Hong Kong last year.  Take a look at some photos of these adorable ambassadors of conservation awareness:

The pandas aboard a flight to Hong Kong
(from Daily Mail)

Disembarking at the Hong Kong airport
(from Daily Mail)

Hong Kong Harbor provides a stunning background
for the newly arrived visitors (from Daily Mail).

Pandas on parade in a Hong Kong shopping district
(from Daily Mail).

Enjoying a Hong Kong beach (from CNN).

The pandas touring Taiwan in March 2014
(from CNN).

Charming the locals at a train station in Germany in
August 2013 (from Dayton Daily News).

Frolicking in the grass near Lake Geneva, Switzerland,
in September 2011 (from CNN).

Rivaling the Eiffel Tower for attention in Paris in October 2008
(from CNN).

I missed seeing the giant Rubber Duck when it was in the United States, and although it does not look like the pandas are scheduled to appear here at all, I am hoping that some enterprising organization will decide to rectify that situation.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a national panda invasion in the near future!