China Sends Two Giant Pandas to Zoo Atlanta

China dispatched a pair of giant pandas, named Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, from Chengdu to Zoo Atlanta in the early hours of Sunday, launching a decade-long conservation arrangement that Chinese President Xi Jinping had unveiled during a state visit to Washington earlier that same week.³⁴⁶

Departure from Chengdu

Before the two animals left, staff organized a send-off event for them at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and admirers assembled around the city to wish them well on their journey, according to Deutsche Welle.³⁵⁷⁸

Ping Ping and Fu Shuang left Chengdu for the United States early on Sunday. The Japan Times said the pair departed from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at around 3 a.m.³⁴⁷

According to CGTN, Chinese authorities had drawn up a detailed transport plan and stocked fresh bamboo shoots, bamboo, apples and emergency medication for the journey, and the two pandas had undergone transport adaptation training beforehand.⁴

According to Deutsche Welle and the Japan Times, the roughly 15-hour trip was carried out by FedEx aboard a Boeing 777 stocked with provisions including steamed corn buns, bamboo shoots and carrots, with seasoned American zookeepers who had flown to China beforehand escorting the pandas.⁵³

The Japan Times said the FedEx aircraft became the most-tracked flight on FlightRadar24 as it approached Alaska.³

Announced at the Xi-Trump summit

The transfer followed a three-day summit between Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Washington. On September 24, Trump hosted a ceremony at the White House to welcome Xi, and the following day Xi said Ping Ping and Fu Shuang would soon come to Zoo Atlanta and meet the American people.²

Xi described the loan program as symbolic of the relationship between the two peoples, saying: "The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples."²

Deutsche Welle described the panda loan as one of the few concrete outcomes of the summit, and said China has long used pandas as part of its diplomatic outreach, at times letting agreements lapse or withdrawing animals when tensions rise.⁵

A renewed partnership with Zoo Atlanta

Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, both adults born in 2020, will spend the next decade at Zoo Atlanta under an arrangement CGTN described as a 10-year protection cooperation program.⁴⁵⁶

According to CGTN, the agreement extends 25 years of collaboration between Zoo Atlanta and China that began in 1999 with pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang and ended in 2024, during which five litters produced seven cubs, a program CGTN called the most successful international giant panda breeding effort involving Europe and the Americas.⁴

The Japan Times reported that Zoo Atlanta has upgraded the enclosures for its pandas and built a dedicated caretaking staff, while Deutsche Welle noted the zoo will source bamboo grown locally around Atlanta, a city whose climate mirrors Chengdu's.³⁵

Sam Rivera of Zoo Atlanta said the zoo has spent the past year substantially enlarging its enclosures, that it is making sure to keep the pandas well supplied with bamboo, and that it employs seasoned keepers trained specifically in giant panda care.¹

A long history of panda diplomacy

According to Reuters, via Internazionale, China's use of pandas as diplomatic gestures dates to 1957, when Mao Zedong gave a panda named Ping Ping to the Soviet Union, and to 1972, when Beijing gifted two pandas to Washington as the countries moved toward normalizing relations following Richard Nixon's visit. China stopped gifting pandas outright in 1984 and began leasing them instead.⁶

The Japan Times reported that earlier this year Beijing withdrew two pandas from Japan following a diplomatic rift sparked by comments from Japan's prime minister implying that Japan might respond with military force if Taiwan were attacked.³

Reuters, via Internazionale, noted comparable changes at other American zoos in recent years: the National Zoo in Washington received Bao Li and Qing Bao in October 2024 after having no pandas once its previous arrangement lapsed, and San Diego Zoo welcomed Yun Chuan and Xin Bao in June 2024, following a gap in its panda program that began in 2019.⁶