In 1972, when the US president Richard Nixon and his wife Pat Nixon visited China for the first time, premier Zhou Enlai received them. At a banquet, he offered the US First Lady a packet of Panda cigarettes. She politely refused, saying she did not smoke. With a smile, Zhou replied, "No, we are going to give two pandas to your country. Would you like them?"

On the first day that Ling-ling and Hsing-hsing went on show at National Zoological Park, 20,000 people descended on the zoo to see them.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/28/2014 page16)