By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Atlanta’s newest celebrities arrived in style on Sunday, as two giant pandas from China touched down at Hartsfield-Jackson airport aboard a jumbo jet dubbed the FedEx Panda Express.
Two years after the city sent its last bears home to China, giant pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang landed to take up residence at Zoo Atlanta, one of three US zoos to house the bears.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a state visit on Thursday that the pandas would soon be on their way. Xi described them as “an envoy of friendship” between China and the US.
China claims ownership of all the world’s pandas and leases them to foreign zoos in a practice known as “panda diplomacy.” Any cubs born abroad remain Chinese property.
The pair traveled to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport aboard a dedicated Boeing 777 emblazoned with a panda logo, with FedEx donating the transport costs, Zoo Atlanta said.
“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 Raymond King said in a statement.
Both bears were born in 2020 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. They will spend about a month in quarantine at the Atlanta facility’s new panda complex before going on public view.
“Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are currently behind the scenes completing a routine quarantine period, so they are not yet visible,” the zoo said.
The pandas arrived under a new conservation agreement between the zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association and will stay for 10 years.
Zoo Atlanta previously housed pandas from 1999 to 2024. The pair Lun Lun and Yang Yang produced seven offspring, including two sets of twins, before returning to China in October 2024.
National Zoo, in Washington, D.C., and the San Diego Zoo also have giant pandas on loan from China.
Once classified as endangered, giant pandas were reclassified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vulnerable in 2016. The organization estimates that nearly 1,900 remain in the wild, most of them protected on nature reserves in China.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Nia Williams)
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