Japan’s longest surviving giant panda cub made her public debut at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Around 18,000 people competed for the 2,000 lottery slots made available to view Xiang Xiang for the first time. The six-month-old cub is the longest surviving baby giant panda in almost three decades, the news agency reported.

Xiang Xiang, whose name means fragrance, was born in June this year and currently weighs 12 kilos. Her mother lost her last cub five years ago.

“We started a panda breeding programme in 2010 but it is not easy to make these animals produce a cub,” Japan Times quoted Yutaka Fukuda as saying. “We are happy and proud of our success.”

Panda cub Xiang Xiang (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP)
Xiang Xiang in her public enclosure (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP)
School children leave Ueno Zoo after seeing Xiang Xiang (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP)
Children catch a glimpse at Xiang Xiang and her mother Shin Shin at Ueno Zoo (AFP)