China welcomes panda Eimei and twin cubs back home from Japan

This photo taken on Feb. 21, 2023 shows giant panda Eimei at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama prefecture, Japan. (Xinhua/Yue Chenxing)

CHENGDU, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Giant panda Eimei, together with its twin cubs Ouhin and Touhin, born in Japan, arrived home in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Wednesday night.

The plane carrying the three pandas landed at the province's Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 11:10 p.m. Wednesday.

They will be kept in quarantine for a month at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

Eimei, or Yong Ming in Chinese, was born in Beijing Zoo in 1992, and was sent to Japan under cooperative breeding programs in 1994. With age the human equivalent of 90, Eimei was the oldest giant panda living in Japan and has fathered a total of 16 panda cubs.

The twin sisters, Ouhin and Touhin, who returned to China with Eimei, were born in 2014.

Before their arrival, Japan-born female giant panda Xiang Xiang returned to China on Tuesday.