Excitement as two new pandas arrive in US from China

The bears, part of China’s ‘panda diplomacy’, will stay in DC’s National Zoo under a 10-year agreement.

China has sent two giant panda bears to the United States to be housed in Washington, DC’s Smithsonian National Zoo, in a rare diplomatic overture between the two countries.

The three-year-old pandas – a male named Bao Li and a female named Qing Bao – arrived at Virginia’s Dulles International Airport, which serves the US capital, on Tuesday.

They are among a small handful of the black-and-white bears still in the US, which sent most of the highly sought animals back to their native China in recent years under pre-arranged contracts. That includes the return last November of the only three pandas living in Washington’s National Zoo.

Many viewed the absence of a quick replacement for the three pandas as reflective of growing US-China friction, but Chinese President Xi Jinping soon promised he would send new pandas as “envoys of friendship”.

In August, the San Diego Zoo welcomed two new giant pandas, the first to arrive in the US in 21 years.