3 Chinese pandas are flying back to their homeland on ‘Panda Express’ plane after spending 10 years in DC zoo
These pandas have a one-way ticket back home to China!
Tian Tian, 26; Mei Xiang, 25; and their 3-year-old cub Xiao Qi Ji have boarded a special FedEx plane — decked out with an image of a panda on the nose — to make their journey home Wednesday.
The Chinese pandas took off on the “Panda Express” from Washington DC — their home for more than a decade – around 1 p.m. and will make a pitstop in Anchorage, Alaska, before making its final leg to China, according to Flight Radar.
They were each given their own special FedEx truck to transport them to Dulles International Airport.
They will be accompanied by two Smithsonian zookeepers and a veterinarian on their nearly 20-hour journey, NBC Washington reported.
The pandas will also have plenty of snacks, including 220 pounds of Bamboo, eight pounds of leaf-eater biscuit, six pounds of apples, three pounds of sugar cane, and one pound of cooked squash, among other choices, the outlet reported.
Only four other Chinese pandas are in the US in Atlanta and are expected to be taken back to China in 2024 after their contract ends, according to CNN.
Tian Tian and Mei Xiang arrived at the National Zoo in 2000 and were only supposed to stay at the zoo for 10 years, but the Smithsonian’s contract with the China Wildlife Conservation Association was later extended multiple times before ending this week.
The couple bore four cubs — Tai Shan, Bao Bao, Bei Bei, and Xiao Qi Ji — who are still alive today. They also suffered several losses, including one cub who died after a week in 2012.
Xiao Qi Ji’s siblings moved back to China long ago when they were only a few years old. Tai Shan left the DC Zoo in 2010, while his sister Bao Bao went home in 2017, and Bei Bei left in 2019, according to the National Zoo.
Bao Bao has since had cubs of her own.
National Zoo Director Brandie Smith said it was a “hard morning” watching the pandas go, but said there was still a “moment of joy because this is one more step in 50 years of a successful giant panda conservation program.”
“Please know the future is bright for giant pandas. We remain committed to our program, and we look forward to celebrating with all of you when pandas can return to DC,” she said, according to NBC Washington.
It is unknown if the pandas will return to the US as a new contract has not been drawn up.
Chinese Diplomat, Xu Xueyuan, was also at the press conference and wished the pandas “bon voyage.”
“As a diplomat in Washington, I say goodbye and bon voyage. As a Chinese government official, I say welcome back,” she said.
Many visitors stopped by the zoo Wednesday to see the panda exhibit before it closed, as the zoo only said the pandas would be removed “mid-November,” and were devastated to find out pandas were already busy packing their bags.
“I’m gonna cry when they leave,” a little boy visiting from Minnesota said, according to NBC Washington.
The National Zoo will renovate the panda enclosure in a $2.5 million project, and it may house other animals temporarily.
The first Chinese pandas arrived at the zoo in 1972 to commemorate President Richard Nixon’s trip to China, NBC Washington reported. The first pandas died in the 1990s and Tian Tian and Mei Xiang arrived in 2000.
