President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the Panda Garden at the Berlin Zoo in Berlin, July 5, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The zoo will pay about $1 million a year under a 15-year contract to host the pair, with most of the funds going toward a breeding research program in China and the protection of pandas in their natural habitat.

While the pandas are in Berlin, the zoo will conduct conservation research in collaboration with the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the Berlin-based Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research and the veterinary faculty at Free University Berlin.

The Berlin Zoo welcomes 3.3 million visitors a year and houses around 1,400 species. The public can view the pandas starting on Thursday.