Hold onto your bamboo, America -- the pandas are coming.
After a brief panda-less era in the nation's capital that left Washingtonians fearing their favorite bears were gone for good, two black and white diplomats are en route from Sichuan, China in a specially equipped jet scheduled to arrive in the capital on Tuesday morning.
Cue tears of joy and a sea of smartphones when Qing Bao and Bao Li eventually make their first appearance at the National Zoo -- reviving not only a beloved 52-year-old conservation program but perhaps offering a tiny reprieve in the fraught relationship between two rival superpowers.
On Monday night local time, Bao Li and Qing Bao, both three years old, began their long journey from a panda research base in Dujiangyan near the bamboo-forested mountains of southwest China. CNN witnessed their departure in large crates on trucks.
The duo were transported to an airport in Chengdu, where they boarded the so-called Panda Express, a FedEx Boeing 777 cargo jet that will stop in Anchorage en route to Washington Dulles.
"We have prepared corn buns, bamboo shoots, carrots, water, and medicine to ensure the pandas' needs are met during the flight," the China Wildlife Conservation Association said in a statement announcing the departure.
National Zoo officials won't reveal any details about the pandas' travel or exact arrival time because of security concerns. The zoo will reportedly close on Tuesday for the safety of the pandas and staff, according to ABC7.
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This isn't just any ordinary arrival at the zoo with its 2,100 animals -- it's a real diplomatic event.
Panda diplomacy dates back to 1972, when the Chinese government gifted Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing to the U.S. after President Richard Nixon's historic trip to Beijing. The two bears immediately captured American hearts and launched an enduring panda love affair.
In the half century since then, China has sent eight pandas to the National Zoo. Its last pair of bears Mei Xiang and Tian Tian and their cub, Xiao Qi Ji, were returned to China last November.
Only six pandas currently reside in the U.S., four at Zoo Atlanta and two at the San Diego Zoo. All of the bears are owned and leased by China, with guarantees to return home to Asia after they're done delighting American zoo goers.
Bao Li and Qing Bao -- "energetic treasure" and "green treasure" in Mandarin -- are coming to Washington on a 10-year, $10 million lease. The money goes to the China Wildlife and Conservation Association, which funds panda research.
"These beloved black and white bears are icons in Washington D.C., and adored around the world," said Brandie Smith, director of the National Zoo, at a send-off ceremony in China, according to CNN. "Pandas have this incredible ability to bring people together."
Bao Li, the male, has quite a distinguished lineage -- he's the son of Bao Bao, a panda born at the National Zoo in 2013, and the grandson of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, who left Washington only last November.
Qing Bao, his female counterpart, is a tree-climbing black-and-white ball with an appetite for apples and carrots.
Not all is fuzzy and cozy in the world of panda diplomacy. In China, social media was buzzing with calls to "keep Chinese pandas in China," especially from nationalists who see the bears as vital cultural treasures and from others who claim, without evidence, that the animals are mistreated in America.
Panda fans may have to wait a few weeks to see their new friends in Washington, as both bears will be quarantined for at least 30 days to ensure a clean bill of health.
Once they settle into their renovated new habitat, with new murals, sod, a special hammock, and 40 "pandacams" to monitor every move, the anticipation will build for what could be the next big thing -- baby pandas.
While it's too soon to start planning the shower, Washington loves a panda cub. Four baby pandas have been born at the zoo and survived. At birth, cubs are around the size of a stick of butter, 1/900th the size of their mother.
Researchers estimate that around 1,800 pandas remain in the wild and 600 live in captivity and breeding centers around the world. Thanks to conservation efforts, pandas are no longer an "endangered" species. In 2021, China downgraded them to "vulnerable" on its list of animals facing extinction.
As an intern in the Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau, Ben Sherwood wrote about pandamania in the summer of 1982 when Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing tried to have a baby through artificial insemination. Over the next 20 years and under the spotlight, Ling Ling gave birth to five cubs but none survived more than a few days.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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