
A pair of giant pandas have arrived in snowy Finland as China's gift to mark the small Nordic nation's independence centenary.

The Chinese ambassador to Finland and Finnish officials led a ceremony to welcome Hua Bao, a four-year old male, and three-year old female Jin Baobao at Helsinki airport on Thursday.

The pandas have been renamed in Finnish as Pyry, meaning 'Snowfall,' and Lumi, meaning 'Snow.'

Finnish line: The pandas arrived in snowy Finland as China's gift to mark the small Nordic nation's independence centenary

One of the two pandas gifted to Finland from China is seen its in cage after arriving at Helsinki airport on Thursday

After arriving in Helsinki, they immediately began their journey to the Ahtari Zoo nature reserve in central Finland, amid cold wintry conditions similar to the mammals' natural living environment in China's mountain areas.

There, they will live in a luxurious panda house that the country's largest wild zoo had spent three years – and around 8.2million euros ($10million) – building.

The pair left Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 6am on Thursday and arrived in Helsinki at 10am local time, according to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

A send-off for the pandas was held at the center's base in Dujiangyan on Wednesday morning, attended by the Finnish ambassador to China Jarno Syrjala.

The Chinese ambassador to Finland led a ceremony to welcome Hua Bao, a four-year old male, and three-year old female Jin Baobao on Thursday

Finnish Ahtari Zoo's new giant pandas Jin Baobao and Hua Bao arrive at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, in Helsinki

The giant pandas have also been renamed in Finnish as Pyry, meaning 'Snowfall' and Lumi, meaning 'Snow'

The giant pandas are seen being moved in their transport boxes during their arrival at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Vantaa

Upon arrival, the pandas immediately began their journey to the Ahtari Zoo nature reserve in central Finland

They were accompanied on the flight by a keeper and veterinarian.

The flight's 'meal service' included 120kg of bamboo and 30kg of bamboo shoots and carrots.

'The two pandas have big appetites and eat 40 kilograms of bamboo every day,' keeper Huang Shan told Xinhua news agency.

The cold wintry conditions greeting them are similar to the mammals' natural living environment in China's mountain areas

The latest installment of Beijing's 'panda diplomacy' was finalized in April last year, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Helsinki to mark Finland's 100 years since independence

The two giant pandas left their home, a panda base in China's Sichuan Province, for Finland on a 15-year research project

The pandas were accompanied by a keeper and a veterinarian from Dujiangyan on their flight from China to Finland

The pair left Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 6am on Thursday and arrived in Helsinki at 10am local time

A send-off for the pandas was held at the center's base in Dujiangyan on Wednesday morning, attended by the Finnish ambassador to China Jarno Syrjala

The latest installment of Beijing's 'panda diplomacy' was finalized in April last year, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Helsinki to mark Finland's 100 years since independence.

After talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, the two countries signed an agreement on panda protection as well as sending the pandas to a Finnish nature reserve on loan for 15 years as part of a joint research programme.

Officials had been talking about conditions for sending pandas to Finland since December 2014.

On the flight from China, the panda's 'meal service' included 120kg of bamboo and 30kg of bamboo shoots and carrots

Chinese and Finnish officials had been talking about conditions for sending pandas to Finland since December 2014

The two countries signed an agreement on panda protection as well as sending the pandas to a Finnish nature reserve on loan for 15 years as part of a joint research programme