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Staff members transfer giant panda Ping Ping at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. Xinhua/Xu Bingjie via AP
Zoo Atlanta
Giant pandas arrive in the US under government agreement with China
Zoo visitors will have to wait a while to see Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, officials said.
TWO GIANT PANDAS arrived in Atlanta this morning as part of an agreement between the Chinese and American governments.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang departed Chengdu in south-western China early on Sunday aboard a dedicated “FedEx Panda Express” Boeing 777 aircraft, officials said.
A new agreement between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association makes Atlanta one of three zoos in the US to house giant pandas.
“This is a thrilling day for Zoo Atlanta and a historic moment for the City of Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and beyond,” Zoo Atlanta president and CEO Raymond B King said in a statement.
“We are elated to welcome Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and could not be more excited about sharing that joy with our Members, guests, city, and community in the coming weeks.”
Zoo visitors will have to wait a while to see Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, officials said.
The bears will be quarantined for about a month in a biosecure area of the wildlife park’s new giant panda complex. Park officials have not confirmed a specific opening date.
The pandas’ arrival was announced on Thursday by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a three-day summit with US President Donald Trump.
The loan of the pandas was one of the few concrete outcomes to come out of the state visit, which saw expressions of goodwill between the leaders, but no fixes to any of the long-standing differences between the two countries.
Atlanta said farewell to its last pandas in 2024, leaving the zoo without the bears. The new agreement was announced back in April, but without any dates.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang will be on loan to Zoo Atlanta for 10 years as part of the agreement. Both pandas were born in 2020 and were kept at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
Ping Ping, the male, has dark black circles around his eyes, while Fu Shuang, the female, has a forehead that protrudes a bit, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
China has long used the pandas as part of its diplomacy globally, deploying the bears in loan programmes as expressions of goodwill and letting loan agreements lapse when tensions arise.
Xi had said the loan programme was an example of “friendship between the Chinese and Americans”.
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