This is the adorable moment that playful twin giant pandas were seen frolicking and rolling around in deep snow in northern China after the first blizzards of the year.
Heartwarming video footage, taken on November 6, shows female twin pandas, called Qi Qiao and Qi Xi, clumsily playing in the snow at the Ordos Animal Park in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
The clip begins with one of the pandas adorably falling on its back in the blanket of fresh snow, as the fun-loving animal seems to be enjoying the snowstorm.
The seven-year-old pandas also roll down a snow-covered slide as they make the most of the icy weather at the wildlife park.
Heartwarming video footage, taken on November 6, shows twin pandas Qi Qiao and Qi Xi clumsily playing in the snow at a wildlife park in Ordos in Inner Mongolia
The playful bears end up with their fur covered in a layer of snow after the twin pandas enjoyed doing roly-polys in the snow.
Last year, Qi Qiao and Qi Xi were also filmed playing in the snow during the freezing climes of Inner Mongolia.
It comes as an early-season snowstorm has blanketed much of northern China, including the capital Beijing and Inner Mongolia, with snow as deep as 11in (30cm) being forecast in some areas.
By contrast, summer temperatures can soar to 100F (38C), with keepers at the Ordos Animal Park known to freeze fruit in ice to help them cool down.
Thankfully the sisters share a 3,200sq m (0.70-acre) covered ‘villa’ at the park, where conditions are controlled to ensure they remain comfortable during the extreme seasons.
Qi Qiao and Qi Xi were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwestern China’s Sichuan province.
In 2016 at the age of two, the pandas were transported by plane to Ordos.
At the park they are cared for by a team of three breeders and two veterinarians.
The clip begins with one of the pandas adorably falling on its back in the blanket of deep snow, as the fun-loving animal seems to be enjoying the snowstorm
The pandas also roll down a snow-covered slide as they make the most of the icy weather at the wildlife park
Their father is a giant panda in Atlanta, US, and their mother, named Qifu, still lives at the Chengdu Research Base.
On average, giant pandas live to the age of 20 so the sisters, seven, are still youngsters.
Northern China has been hit by freezing temperatures and the first snowfall of the year, which has sparked highway closures and flight and train cancellations.
China’s weather agency issued the winter’s first snowstorm orange alert, the second-highest level, while forecasters said the winter weather struck around a month earlier than usual due to the climate phenomenon known as La Niña.
The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) has forecast major snowfalls in the coming days, with cold waves that will move southwards and engulf most of China.
The National Meteorological Centre forecast blizzards in northeastern China at the weekend, with some regions getting 45 millimetres (1.8 inches) of snow over 24 hours and heavy snow across the northern part of the country.
The playful bears end up with their fur covered in a layer of snow after the twin pandas enjoyed doing roly-polys in the snow
A cold snap also swept from Beijing to Shanghai to Guangzhou, pushing down temperatures by as much as 14C (25F) on Sunday, the weather agency said.
Beijing was hit hardest on Sunday morning. Several sections of road were closed, bus services were suspended on more than 160 routes and flights were reduced at the city’s two major airports, state media said.
In Inner Mongolia, flights were cancelled on Saturday at the airport in Hohhot, the capital of the Chinese region, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The snowstorm also saw an avalanche of fresh snow collapse onto a woman’s head as she walked up to her front door in in Langfang, Hebei province, on November 7.
In the footage, she was about to open the door when a huge slab of snow slid down from the roof and almost crushed her.
She was reportedly uninjured but needed to go back inside to recover from the shock and change clothes.