Two giant pandas arrive in Atlanta under new US-China agreement
Both pandas were born in 2020 and were raised at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
Two giant pandas arrived in Atlanta on Sunday (27 September) as part of a new agreement between the Chinese and US governments, bringing the animals back to the city after a two-year absence.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang left Chengdu in southwestern China early Sunday aboard a specially designated "FedEx Panda Express" Boeing 777, officials said.
Under an agreement between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, Atlanta is now one of three US zoos housing giant pandas. The others are the San Diego Zoo in California and the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC.
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"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 and CEO Raymond B. King said in a statement.
The pandas will not immediately be available for public viewing. Zoo officials said they will spend about a month in quarantine inside a biosecure area of the wildlife park's new giant panda complex. A specific date for their public debut has not yet been announced.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the pandas' arrival during a three-day summit with US President Donald Trump. The agreement was among the few concrete outcomes from the state visit, which featured expressions of goodwill but did not resolve longstanding differences between the two countries.
Atlanta's previous giant pandas left the city in 2024. The latest 10-year loan agreement was announced in April, although no arrival date was initially given.
Both pandas were born in 2020 and were raised at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Ping Ping is male and has distinctive dark circles around his eyes, while Fu Shuang is female and has a slightly protruding forehead, according to China's Xinhua News Agency.
China has long used giant pandas in international diplomacy, lending the animals to foreign zoos as a symbol of goodwill and allowing agreements to expire when relations become strained.
Xi has described the panda program as an expression of "friendship between the Chinese and Americans."
