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'Panda Diplomacy' Returns: Ping Ping and Fu Shuang Arrive at Zoo Atlanta
The pair flew from Chengdu aboard a FedEx 'Panda Express' jet and will spend about a month in quarantine before meeting the public.
Why it matters
The arrival is one of the few concrete outcomes of last week's Xi-Trump Washington summit, a rare goodwill gesture amid ongoing trade friction. It also ends a two-year panda drought at Zoo Atlanta, which sent its last pandas back to China in 2024.
Full report
Two giant pandas, Ping Ping (male) and Fu Shuang (female), landed in Atlanta on Sunday morning aboard a FedEx 'Panda Express' Boeing 777. China's Xinhua News Agency reported the chartered flight departed Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at about 2:55 a.m. Sunday local time (2:55 p.m. ET Saturday) for the roughly 16-hour journey.
Both pandas were born in 2020 — Ping Ping in March, Fu Shuang in October — and were raised at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. They will spend about a month in quarantine in a biosecure area of the zoo's new giant panda complex, with no public debut date confirmed. Chinese veterinarians and keepers accompanied the flight and will stay through quarantine to help the bears settle in.
The transfer was announced Thursday during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington. Under a 10-year agreement between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, Atlanta becomes one of three U.S. zoos housing giant pandas, alongside the San Diego Zoo and the Smithsonian's National Zoo. Zoo Atlanta President and CEO Raymond B. King called it 'a thrilling day for Zoo Atlanta and a historic moment for the City of Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and beyond.'
Atlanta returned its four pandas to China in 2024, ending a 25-year agreement. A new loan deal was announced back in April but without dates. Xi has described the panda program as an expression of 'friendship between the Chinese and Americans.'
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