[top photo: The latest addition to the panda family in Chiang Mai Zoo.]

Chiang Mai Zoo's Bt60-million (S$2.5 million) snow dome will be open by the middle of this month, giving giant pandas Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui and their cub a new winter home.

Before they move in though, the public is being invited to explore every square inch of the dome, where the temperature is a chilly minus-5 degrees Celcius.

"We plan to let visitors in first," panda project chief Prasertsak Boontrakulpoon-tawee said yesterday. "The pandas will move in around winter."

Visitors will enter the dome along a path built to resemble the Great Wall of China. Inside, they will be met by a large Chinese-style house.

Cosy snow

Preparations for the pandas are almost complete. "All that's left is to bring in more fake snow," said Prasertsak.

Ever since the birth on Wednesday last week, Lin Hui has held her cub close.

"Most pandas hold their cub for a day or two," Prasertsak said. "Lin Hui is an unusually loving mother."

As of yesterday, the cub had grown from its birth weight of 200 grams to 325 grams.

Mother and baby are not on direct public display.

"We may move Chuang Chuang to the snow dome first to see how he likes it, before moving the mother and her cub," said Prasertsak.

-Daily Xpress/Asia News Network