Giant pandas Cai Tao and Hu Chun arrived to fanfare in Indonesia where a new "palace" like home that cost millions of dollars has been built for them.

Taman Safari zoo outside Jakarta hopes the pair of 7-year-olds will mate and add to the giant panda population.

There are less than 1,900 giant pandas in their only wild habitats in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

The pair arrived at Jakarta's international airport from Chengdu on Thursday morning and will be quarantined at Taman Safari for about a month before the public can visit an enclosure that cost about $4.5 million.

China gifted friendly nations with its national mascot in what was known as "panda diplomacy" for decades. But it now loans pandas on commercial terms.