The U.S. capital city will see two prominent new visitors by the end of the year. Beijing will loan giant pandas to Washington’s Smithsonian National Zoo.
The return of the pandas to the zoo was announced Wednesday in a video on the Smithsonian Museum’s website. The video features first lady Jill Biden, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, and Brandie Smith, who is the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
“We can’t wait to celebrate this historic moment here in our nation’s capital,” Biden said in the video.
Bao Li and Qing Bao, the pair of pandas being sent, are part of a 10-year breeding and research assignment, the National Zoo said.
Bao Li, whose name means “treasure” and “energetic” was born on Aug. 4, 2021, in the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. Qing Bao, whose name means “green” and “treasure,” was born Sept. 12, 2021.
Pandas are coming back to the zoo in Washington a year-and-a-half after the National Zoo sent its three pandas back to China.
Amid increased tensions between the U.S. and China, other American zoos have also sent their pandas back to China.
However, Chinese President Xi Jinping, after meeting with President Joe Biden in California last year, indicated that China could send new pandas to the U.S. as “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”
Since Beijing gave a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in 1972, they have become a symbol of friendship between the United States and China.
Pandas are also important in the Washington area. The Conservation Biology Institute has developed one of the world’s most prominent conservation programs for pandas over the past few decades.
“We're thrilled to announce the next chapter of our breeding and conservation partnership begins by welcoming two new bears, including a descendent of our beloved panda family, to Washington, D.C.,” Smith said.
This is not expected to be the only panda exchange. The San Diego Zoo could welcome pandas Yun Chuan and Xin Bao as early as this summer.
