Taipei - Two giant pandas sent as a goodwill gift to Taiwan from China will make their debut at Taipei Zoo on the first day of the Chinese New Year, which falls on January 26, a spokesman said Thursday.

"The month-long quarantine for the pair at the Taipei Zoo will end on January 23 and we plan to formally introduce them to the public on January 26," said Yang Hsiao-tung, spokesman for the Taipei City Government.

After more than two weeks in Taiwan, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names together mean "reunion," are adapting well to life at the Taipei Zoo, and changing their eating habits from Chinese bamboo to Taiwanese bamboo, zoo officials said.

They said the four-year-old bears now consume more than 30 kilograms of Taiwan bamboo each day, in addition to carrots, apples, steamed buns made with bamboo powder, corn, soybeans and sugar.

Chinese President Hu Jintao offered two pandas to Taiwan in 2005 as a symbol of friendship, but the offer was turned down by pro-independence former president Chen Shui-bian.

Chen's successor President Ma Ying-jeou accepted the offer, choosing to ignore the pandas' highly political names, but pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers are demanding new names for the two pandas because critics interpret their names as hinting at unification between China and Taiwan.

Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still considers Taiwan an integral part of China that must be brought back to the Chinese fold, if necessary by force.

Pandas are an endangered species with just 1,590 of them living in the wild - mostly in China's south-west - and more than 180 living in captivity around the world.

Since the 1950s, China has given dozens of pandas to foreign countries to cement ties, giving rise to the term "panda diplomacy." (dpa)