The US-born giant panda Baobao made its official Chinese debut on Friday after a month in quarantine at the Dujiangyan base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Photo: Cui Meng

Photo: Cui Meng

Photo: Cui Meng

Photo: Cui Meng

US-born giant panda Bao Bao recently explored her 100-square meter new home in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province for the first time, enjoying its lounge and outdoor playground.

On Friday, Bao Bao made her first official Chinese debut at Sichuan’s Dujiangyan base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda after moving back to her ancestral homeland from the National Zoo in Washington DC, where she was born.

Before her debut, she spent one month in quarantine, during which she was helped to get used to Chinese food and the Sichuan dialect of Chinese.

Bao Bao was born on August 23, 2013 to giant pandas on loan from China. Her name, which means both “precious” and” treasure,” was chosen by tens of thousands of fans around the globe.

The three-year-old cutie is the 11th panda which was born overseas and later sent to China.

Under the panda-loan agreement between China and America, panda cubs born overseas should be sent to China before they reach 4 years old, when they might start breeding.

Before she left the US zoo, her American fans used the Twitter hashtag “ByeByeBaoBao” to express their affection.

China gave the US its first pair of giant pandas back in 1972 in honor of then US President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing.

Ever since then, pandas have become a symbol of the friendship between the two countries.

Pandas are considered to be one of the world’s most vulnerable animals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to China’s State Forestry Administration, 1,864 pandas lived in the wild in China at the end of 2015, with another 422 in captivity.