Eight pandas were flown back to southwest China's Sichuan Province on Sunday to end a 10-month stay in Beijing.

The pandas left Beijing at 6:00 PM and arrived at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in Sichuan at 8:45 PM.

The animals looked lively at the airport, as some seemed to have just woken up while others were eating apples and bamboo in their cages.

Later, they will head for their new home at the Ya'an-based Bifengxia Base of the Giant Panda Research Center.

The giant pandas's new home features an air-conditioned indoor area and a large outdoor area with play facilities designed to resemble their natural habitat.

The pandas were flown to Beijing on May 24 from their damaged habitat at the Wolong Nature Reserve near the epicenter of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake last year.

During their stay at Beijing Zoo, the pandas, aged from one and two, attracted more than 2 million visitors from China and abroad.

About 1,590 pandas are living in the wild, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern province of Shaanxi. An additional 180 have been bred in captivity.

The Wolong reserve has leased pandas to zoos for breeding, including the San Diego Zoo in the United States.

Zoo Atlanta's panda duo, which produced cub Mei Lan in 2006, are from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, about a three-hour drive from Wolong.

Wolong is part of efforts to breed pandas to help the species survive.

Up to six pandas will be sent to Beijing for an exhibition celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2009)