The National Zoo's three pandas have starting their long journey back to China. It's not clear if, or when, we'll see pandas again in D.C.
Jacob Fenston/WAMUThree of the District's cutest, furriest, and most famous residents are leaving D.C. today. Giant pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji have begun their journey from the Smithsonian's National Zoo to Chengdu, China.
. Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, the zoo's first panda couple, arrived following Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972.Ling-Ling died in 1992 at age 23, while Hsing-Hsing lived until the ripe old age of 28, dying in 1999.toggle captionTian Tian and Mei Xiang arrived in the District in 2000 on a 10-year loan, at a cost of $1 million per year. Since then, the loan agreement was extended three times.
Shipping three large animals to the other side of the globe isn't necessarily simple, but it is something zoo staffers know how to do. A small team of zoo staff are traveling with the pandas, to tend to them during the 19-hour flight. They're taking along a variety of panda snacks for the trip, along with more than 200 lbs. of bamboo.
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