Eight giant pandas from the Wolong Nature Reserve arrived at Beijing Capital Airport on Saturday afternoon on a special flight run by China Southern Airlines.

The pandas were removed from the quake-stricken province of Sichuan and will remain in the capital during the Olympics as part of the event.

The Wolong Nature Reserve is only about 30 km from the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake in southwestern Sichuan that had claimed 60,560 lives nationwide as of Saturday noon.

Five of the Wolong staff were among the dead, and the pandas' living facilities were severely damaged.

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2008)