On April 29, 2000, the female giant panda cub rescued from the wild in Beichuan County was taken in by the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda at its Wolong base.
That July, pop singer Mao Amin (毛阿敏) adopted her — paying the first year's care fee of 30,000 yuan at a ceremony on July 29 and visiting Wolong the next morning to spend time with the cub. The adoption gave the panda the name by which she would be known for the rest of her life: Mao Mao (毛毛).