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2 giant pandas land in DC after long trip from China – WTOP News

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After 11 months, the District’s panda lovers will no longer have to bear the pain of a panda-less National Zoo.

Precious panda cargo — one of the bears — is unloaded off the plane at Dulles Airport on Oct. 15, 2024.
(7 News)

7 News

With the help of "FedEx Panda Team" crew members, one of the bears that will soon call the National Zoo home is lowered off an airplane at Dulles Airport on Oct. 15, 2024. — With the help of “FedEx Panda Team” crew members, one of the bears that will soon call the National Zoo home is lowered off an airplane at Dulles Airport on Oct. 15, 2024.
(7 News)

Washington Arrival Pandas — A FedEx cargo plane arrives at Dulles International Airport carrying giant pandas from China on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024 in Sterling, Va.
(AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

China US National Zoo Pandas — In this image taken from video and released by China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration, male giant panda Bao Li is prepared for transport from the Dujiangyan Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in southwestern China’s Sichuan province on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (Jin Tao/China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration via AP)
(AP/Jin Tao)

Giant Pandas — Two-year-old male giant panda Bao Li in his habitat at Shenshuping Base in Wolong, China, May 16, 2024. Two new giant pandas are returning to Washington’s National Zoo from China this year. The announcement from the Smithsonian Institution on Wednesday comes about half a year after the zoo sent its three pandas back to China. (Roshan Patel, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute via AP)
(AP/Roshan Patel)

Panda mobile — Two-year-old Qing Bao in her habitat at Dujiangyan Base in Sichuan, China.
(left)

Giant Panda statues are stored in a back parking lot at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, on November 7, 2023. All three of the zoo's pandas are leaving for China by the end of the year, bringing at least a temporary end to a decades-old connection between the cuddly animal and the US capital. And while the pandas' departure had been expected due to contractual obligations, many can't help but see the shift as reflective of the growing strains between Beijing and Washington. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) — Giant Panda statues are stored in a back parking lot at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, on November 7, 2023. All three of the zoo’s pandas are leaving for China by the end of the year, bringing at least a temporary end to a decades-old connection between the cuddly animal and the US capital. And while the pandas’ departure had been expected due to contractual obligations, many can’t help but see the shift as reflective of the growing strains between Beijing and Washington.
(Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

File photo of Bao Bao and her cub Bao Li. (Getty Images/Foreverhappy-Mee) — File photo of Bao Bao and her cub Bao Li.
(Getty Images/Foreverhappy-Mee)

Two new giant pandas from China landed in the D.C. area Tuesday morning, nearly a year after the Smithsonian National Zoo’s exhibit was devastatingly vacated.

It’s been 11 months since three of the cherished bears left the District, leaving D.C.-area panda lovers in a lurch.

With the arrival of Bao Li and Qing Bao, both three years old, they will no longer have to bear the pain of a panda-less National Zoo.

The “Panda Express” — a FedEx Boeing 777 cargo jet carrying the bears — landed at Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia at around 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

On the tarmac at Dulles, a crew of people who sported bright yellow vests labeled “FedEx Panda Team” helped unload large crates — with the precious panda cargo. A conveyor belt-style device moved the crates off the Panda Express and onto trucks.

Their next stop is the National Zoo.

Officials said Monday the bears were traveling to D.C. — prompting panda-monium over the bears’ much-anticipated return to the nation’s capital.

It marks the continuation of the giant panda conservation program partnership between China and the U.S.

The Smithsonian National Zoo is closed Tuesday to help ease the bears arrival.

Fans are pining in anticipation for a chance to welcome the National Zoo’s latest residents to their new home. But it’s not clear when the celebrity bears will be ready to welcome visitors. The animals will likely have to quarantine and get used to their environment first.

What we know about Bao Li and Qing Bao

The pandas left a research facility in southwest China on Monday, ready for travel with snacks such as bamboo shoots and carrots as well as medications in hand, according to the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

Last May, the National Zoo announced the two pandas would be transported to the zoo by the end of 2024.

They’re the first pair of pandas China has sent to D.C. in 24 years.

One of the pandas who arrived Tuesday is a descendant of the Smithsonian’s former “panda family.” Bao Li is the son of Bao Bao, who was born at the D.C. zoo in 2013.

“He reminds me a lot of his grandfather, Tian Tian,” panda keeper Mariel Lally told CNN. She is escorting Bao Li and Qing Bao to D.C.

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‘Panda-monium’: Two giant pandas from China are coming to the National Zoo

11 months of despair for DC with no pandas

On the afternoon of Nov. 8, 2023, beloved bears Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Xiao Qi Ji boarded the “Panda Express” at Dulles International Airport.

The three bears flew 19 hours to the Wolong Panda Reserve in Chengdu, China. It was a tough goodbye for zoo staff and fans with uncertainty about whether the black-and-white bears would ever return.

Mei Xiang and Tian Tian first arrived at the National Zoo in December 2000. In 2020, Mei Xiang gave birth to Xiao Qi Ji, becoming the oldest panda in the U.S. to give birth.

The zoo’s panda exhibit brought in millions of visitors each year. But it’s been unoccupied since November. In the panda’s absence, the zoo upgraded the enclosure, making improvements to help visitors get a clearer view of the pandas among other changes.

‘Panda diplomacy’ in a black-and-white world

The National Zoo was the first zoo in the U.S. to take part in what’s become known as “panda diplomacy.”

When a mass exodus of pandas over the past couple of years took place as panda leases between U.S. zoos and China expired, some feared the partnerships were coming to a close.

But around the time the Smithsonian’s pandas departed last November, Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled that China would send new pandas to the U.S., calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”

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Jessica Kronzer

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Related Topics:bao li China dc zoo jessica kronzer pandamonium pandas qing bao smithsonian national zoo

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2 giant pandas land in DC after long trip from China – WTOP News

What we know about Bao Li and Qing Bao

11 months of despair for DC with no pandas

‘Panda diplomacy’ in a black-and-white world