BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The four-year-old American-born panda Mei Sheng is expected to return to his hometown in southwest China's Sichuan Province at the end of this month and will settle down hence.

"Mei Sheng," which means "born in America" or "beautiful life," was born on August 19, 2003 at the San Diego Zoo in Southern California by Bai Yun and Gao Gao, a couple lent to the zoo by China Conservation Wildlife Association under a giant panda conservation and research program, said a spokesman of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, based in Wolong, Sichuan Province.

Under the contract, overseas-born cubs of the loaned pandas belong to China and should be returned after they are three years old.

As an envoy of good-will from the Chinese people and a symbol of friendly cooperation between China and the United States, Mei Sheng's return rivets wide attention.

Experts from both the San Diego Zoo and the Chinese research center will escort the panda on his homebound journey, China News Service reports.

Preparations for the male panda's return have been completed, sources with the center said.

Mei Sheng is scheduled to arrive in Shanghai on the night of Oct. 30 and arrive at the Shuangliu Airport in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, at noon of Oct. 31. The panda is expected to arrive at the Wolong center in the afternoon of Oct. 31 and will be quarantined for a month before it begins new life at Wolong Nature Reserve, the most renowned home of pandas..

China presented 24 giant pandas to nine countries as gifts in the 26 years from 1957 to 1982. But the country decided to present no more giant pandas to other countries in 1985. Instead, the endangered animals go abroad by means of leasing and their cubs born in foreign countries belong to China.