WASHINGTON — A pair of pandas from China arrived at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, in a revival of so-called panda diplomacy after an 11-month pause that had left countless zoogoers disappointed by the absence of the lovable black-and-white bears.
After their long flight from China touched down at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia on Tuesday morning, the two 3-year-old giant pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao, traveled in a police-escorted motorcade through central Washington. The bears rode in a pair of large FedEx delivery trucks bearing panda images on their sides and passed just blocks from the White House.
The transfer was announced in a statement by the China Wildlife Conservation Association, which said the pandas would visit the National Zoo under a 10-year agreement.
The National Zoo, which announced in May that the pandas would arrive by the end of the year, was closed Tuesday to allow for a safe and orderly transfer of the bears. Zoo officials said the public would be able to view the pair after they complete a quarantine period.
The pandas have long been one of Washington’s top attractions, and excitement was already building outside the zoo Tuesday morning before their arrival. Several television camera crews along with amateur videographers staked out the zoo’s entrance. Baked by Yael, a bakery across the street from the entrance, was offering panda-themed cake pops and panda black-and-white cookies.
The zoo was left without pandas for the first time in more than 50 years when three of the bears, two adults and their cub, left in November for a nature preserve in China’s Sichuan province. Until then, pandas had been a constant presence in the nation’s capital since 1972, when President Richard M. Nixon visited Beijing to establish diplomatic relations between the United States and China.
During the trip, Pat Nixon, the first lady, mentioned her love for pandas to China’s premier, Zhou Enlai, who shipped a pair over two months later.
Chinese pandas had remained at the zoo since then under a series of agreements between the two countries, until the last one expired without an immediate renewal last year.
The absence of pandas from the United States prompted speculation that a recent downward slide in U.S.-China relations was to blame. Zoo officials have downplayed the idea, saying that the pandas had reached an age when they should return to China.
But China’s leader, Xi Jinping, suggested in a speech shortly after their departure last November that the pandas were a component of diplomacy between his country and the United States. Beijing was “ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation,” Xi said during a mid-November visit to San Francisco.
Xi met with President Joe Biden during that visit, in a summit that analysts say has helped ease tensions between the countries. A pair of pandas from China arrived at San Diego’s zoo in June.
In Washington on Tuesday, traffic halted along Connecticut Avenue as the panda motorcade rolled into the zoo’s entrance.
Kirsten Svane, who wore “panda ears” on her head for the occasion, teared up as she used her phone to record the grand arrival.
“You know, when Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji left, I felt like I was losing my best friends in a way,” Svane said, referring to the pandas that departed last fall.
“You just really get to know their personality, what they like, what they don’t like, their habits — like, everything,” she added.
As of early Tuesday afternoon, the National Zoo’s famed panda cam page was not active. But a message assured visitors that live footage would be “coming soon.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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