Two giant pandas arrived at the Washington Zoo from China this morning. Bao Li, a male panda, and Qing Bao, a female, were flown from Chengdu to Dulles Airport in Virginia aboard a FedEx Boeing 777F cargo plane nicknamed “Panda Express.”
The three-year-old bears were then loaded onto trucks and taken to their new home at the zoo in the American capital. “Bao Li and Qing Bao have begun to explore their new spaces, where keepers have placed abundant bamboo for the bears to eat,” the zoo said in a statement. They will now be quarantined for at least 30 days and will not be on public display until January 24, 2025. “We are thrilled to welcome Bao Li and Qing Bao to Washington,” said Brandie Smith, director of the National Zoo and the Institute for Conservation Biology. “Today we joyfully celebrate a new chapter in our 52-year giant panda breeding and conservation program.” China adopted so-called “panda diplomacy” in 1972, when the first animals were sent to Washington as gifts, following US President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to the communist nation.
