CHENGDU — Two giant pandas departed southwestern China for their new home at Zoo Atlanta under a 10-year loan agreement between China and the United States, media reports said early Sunday.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang left Chengdu after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during a three-day summit with US President Donald Trump in Washington that the pandas would arrive in Atlanta in the coming days, according to NBC News.
The agreement was first announced in April, although an arrival date had not been specified.
Both pandas were born in 2020 and have been housed at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Ping Ping is male, while Fu Shuang is female.
Zoo Atlanta has been without giant pandas since its previous pandas returned to China in 2024.
The panda loan was among the concrete outcomes of Xi’s state visit to the US, which included expressions of goodwill between the two leaders but did not resolve longstanding differences between Washington and Beijing, NBC News reported.
China has long used giant panda loan programs as a form of cultural and diplomatic engagement with other countries.
Xi described the program as an example of “friendship between the Chinese and Americans.”
Source: Saudi Gazette