New Pair of Pandas Headed for the National Zoo

WASHINGTON — Eleven months after the National Zoo sent its three giant pandas back to China, a new pair of the popular bears are about to wing their way to Washington, D.C.

“It’s official,” First Lady Dr. Jill Biden declared in a video posted to the zoo’s website. “The pandas are coming back to D.C.”

The Zoo will be closed Tuesday as a result of the new pandas’ arrival, though they likely will spend some time in quarantine before they are exhibited to the public.

Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji had been a mainstay at the National Zoo for nearly a quarter century.

The new pair of three-year-old giant pandas, named Bao Li and Qing Bao, have already left a research facility in the southwestern Chinese city of Dujiangyan and will soon be flown to Washington, according to a statement by the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

“Food prepared for the trip includes corn bread, bamboo and carrots, as well as water and medicine,” the statement said, adding that the partnership will “make new contributions in protecting global biodiversity and enhance the friendship of the people from the two countries.”

It’s unclear exactly when the bears will actually go on display in the new refurbished panda enclosure, though in the video with the first lady, Smithsonian Secretary Dr. Lonnie G. Bunch III said they’ll be welcomed by the zoo “by the end of 2024.”

Pandas first arrived at the National Zoo in April 1972, a byproduct of President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon’s historic visit to China two months earlier.

Seated next to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai during one of the many galas thrown during the state visit, the first lady spoke enthusiastically about the tours she’d taken since arriving in China, and particularly of her visit to the Peking Zoo to see the pandas.

As she spoke, according to an account on the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum website, Pat Nixon noticed an ornately wrapped box of cigarettes on the table in front of her.

The box was wrapped in pink tissue and decorated with Chinese pandas.

“I’ll give you some,” Zhou smiled, and soon arrangements were being made to ship two pandas — a female named Ling-Ling and a male named Hsing-Hsing — to the National Zoo in Washington.

In exchange, the White House sent China two Arctic musk oxen named Milton and Matilda.

Pat Nixon attended the ceremony on April 20, 1972, to dedicate the new Panda House, appearing alongside the director of the Smithsonian Institution and a Chinese government representative.

Though smitten with the new arrivals herself, what really got Nixon’s attention was the crush of the crowd.

“Panda-monium” had broken out in the capital, the ordinarily reserved first lady said.

Both pandas lived into the 1990s and had five cubs together, though none lived past a few days. 

About a year after Hsing-Hsing’s death in 1999, the zoo and the Chinese government came to another agreement for more pandas to come to Washington. That’s when Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived — ensuring that pandas would have an unbroken streak as top attractions at the zoo.

There was, however, a slight difference surrounding the arrival of the new pandas.

In 1972, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing had been bestowed as a gift from China in perpetuity. In 1984, China updated its panda protocols to stipulate that henceforth pandas would be offered on 10-year loans.

The 2000 agreement that brought Tian Tian and Mei Xiang to live at the zoo stipulated they would remain in the U.S. for 10 years in exchange for $10 million, according to the zoo’s website.

A decade later, the Smithsonian and the China Wildlife Conservation Association signed a new Giant Panda Cooperative Research and Breeding Agreement that extended the pandas’ stay through December 2015.

The contract was later extended to 2020, and then again to 2023, shortly before each previous contract expired.

Bao Li and Qing Bao, whose names mean “precious vigor” and “green treasure,” respectively, are coming to the United States as  part of a similar 10-year exchange agreement with Chinese authorities.

“For more than 50 years, the zoo’s pandas have brought joy to everyone who has seen them, and are one of our biggest conservation success stories,” said Dr. Brandie Smith, who oversees the 163-acre zoo facility as the John and Adrienne Mars director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

“It’s especially meaningful to have them at the National Zoo, where people can visit the pandas in person for free, or watch them on the panda cam with millions of people across the globe. We can’t wait to celebrate this historic moment here in our nation’s capital,” she said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue