Watch as a giant panda celebrates 1st birthday with traditional games, special cake


On Sunday, Yuan Zai celebrated a milestone: The first panda born in Taiwan turned 1, and thousands of visitors came out to the Taipei Zoo to mark the occasion.
Yuan Zai has been a huge boost to the zoo, bringing in 1.6 million visitors since her birth. Zookeepers made her a cake out of her favorite foods — bamboo, apples, carrots, and pineapples — and she also played a traditional first birthday game called zhua zhou, but with a twist. Eight bamboo shoots were set up representing endangered species, and she will become the spokeswoman for the one she pulled down. Watch Yuan Zai celebrate in the clip below. --Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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