Giant Panda Cub - Let the Serious Voting Begin!

A contest to select a name for a female baby panda born in Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo on May 27 is nearing the end with a 1 million baht ($29,300) prize to the winner.

From the thousands of entries received, the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand has narrowed the selection down to four names:

Ying Ying - Chinese meaning is "Cherry Flower".

Thai-Jeen - Lao meaning is "Chinese Candy".

Lin Ping - Chinese meaning is "Beautiful Jade", "Ping" is the name of the river that runs through Chiang Mai.

Khwan Thai - Thai meaning is "Axe Thai" which I can only assume is a reference to the "loose" shape of Thailand which looks like an axe!.

Each of the four contestants who submitted these names will receive 400,000 baht ($11,700) and an airfare ticket to China to tour panda sites.

People can vote for their favorite name by sending in a postcard that will be available for purchase starting June 19. The winner will be announced on August 12, which is Mother’s Day in Thailand.

The zoo is also currently constructing a 60 million baht ($1.76 million) snow house for the pandas that is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

The panda cub was bred by artificial insemination and is the first to be born in Thailand.

Source: The Epoch Times, New York 17th June 2009