A 17-year-old female panda gave birth to a pigeon pair in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province on Monday morning.

Qing He, whose name means congratulations in Chinese, gave birth to the twin cubs. The female cub born at 7:53 am weighed 117.2 grams and the male cub born 23 minutes later weighed 140.8 grams.

They are the second pigeon pair born in the base this year.

According to base chief Zhang Zhihe, his base has witnessed the birth of nine cubs this year, including the two pigeon pairs.

Qing He got her name because she was born in 2001 after China won the right to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Zhang said.