Two giant pandas, on loan from the Chinese government as part of Beijing's long-standing "panda diplomacy," landed in Atlanta early Sunday morning.
Two giant pandas who are on loan from the Chinese government as part of Beijing's long-standing "panda diplomacy" landed in Atlanta early Sunday morning and headed to the city's zoo. The pandas, a boy panda named Ping Ping and a girl panda named Fu Shang, arrived on a FedEx flight from Chengdu, in southwestern China.
The pandas' arrival at Zoo Atlanta will be met with great fanfare, especially given how rare the pandas are in the US.
Zoo Atlanta returned four pandas to China in 2024, marking the end of a 25-year agreement between the zoo and China.
The pandas departed from Chengdu, in southwestern China, at 2:55 a.m. Sunday morning local time, 2:55 p.m. EST Saturday, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua. The panda's flight came just a day after Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington concluded.
During the visit from the Chinese president, which was intended to address rising US-China tensions, Xi and US President Donald Trump agreed to establish an AI hotline between the two countries.
Newscasts from Xinhua showed fans of the pandas waving placards as trucks that were carrying the pandas headed from the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base to the airport. China arranged for several veterinarians and breeders to remain at the zoo in Atlanta as the pandas enter quarantine upon arrival.
Panda loaning has been a tool of Chinese diplomacy for years, as the government has used them as a cultural icon and national symbol. For more than half a century, Beijing sent the lovable creatures overseas to strengthen alliances, court new partners and mend estranged ties.
“The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and Americans,” Xi said on Thursday, referencing the half-century in which pandas lived in US zoos on loan from the Chinese government. The tradition between the two countries was started by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1972, shortly after Richard Nixon became the first US president to visit China following the Communist Party’s rise to power in 1949.
One of the pandas bound for Atlanta has the same name – Ping Ping, meaning “peace” – as the first ever panda that Mao gifted to the Soviet Union in 1957.
Ping Ping was born on March 17, 2020, has large black patches around his eyes, and is especially good at climbing trees, according to China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
The other panda, Fu Shuang, meaning “double blessings,” was born seven months later than Ping Ping on October 18. She has a small tuft of fur on the top of her head, a slightly protruding forehead and finds food very easily, the administration said.
Zoo Atlanta has hosted several pandas before; another pair, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, had seven offspring there between 2006 and 2016 before returning to Chengdu.
