(CFP)

Brian Young, a maintenance painter, helps the Edinburgh Zoo make final preparations for the arrival of giant pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang from China on December 2 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The two giant pandas were born in 2003 in the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in southwest Sichuan Province. Their arrival in the UK is part of a 10-year China-UK joint research program studying how captive-bred pandas can survive in the wild.

The two giant pandas, which will be the first to live in the UK in 17 years, will touch down at Edinburgh airport following their journey. In 1974, another pair of giant pandas Jiajia and Jingjing were presented to the UK by the Chinese Government.