Photo taken on Jan. 16 shows a female giant panda named Jin Bao Bao (Lumi), at the Dujiangyan base of the China conservation and research center for the giant pandas, in Dujiangyan city of southwest China's Sichuan province. A pair of giant pandas left the center for Finland on Wednesday and will live in Ahtari zoo for 15 years. (Xinhua/Xue Yubin)

CHENGDU, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A pair of giant pandas Wednesday departed a panda base in southwest China's Sichuan Province for Finland for a 15-year research project.

The pandas will leave Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 6 a.m. Thursday and arrive in Helsinki, capital of Finland, at 10 a.m. Thursday local time.

A send-off for the pandas was held at the Dujiangyan base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda on Wednesday morning.

Brought up in the base, the male Hua Bao is four and a half years old and the female Jin Baobao is three years and four months old.

During their flight, they will be accompanied by a keeper and a veterinarian from Dujiangyan.

"The two pandas have big appetites and eat 40 kilograms of bamboo every day," said keeper Huang Shan.

The flight's "meal service" includes 120 kilograms of bamboo, and 30 kilograms of bamboo shoots and carrots.

The two pandas's new home is in Ahtari zoo, Finland's largest wild zoo.

China and Finland signed a research agreement on giant panda last April.

According to the document, a pair of pandas will live at Ahtari for 15 years.