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Two giant pandas flew from Chengdu to Atlanta on Sunday under a new China-US loan deal. Their return gives Zoo Atlanta a fresh draw and revives panda diplomacy amid wider tensions.
Bangkok,Sep 27, 2026 10:54 IST
Two giant pandas left Chengdu in south-western China early on Sunday for their new home in Atlanta, under an agreement between the Chinese and governments. The move will bring pandas back to Zoo Atlanta after the city said goodbye to its last pandas in 2024.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during his three-day summit in Washington with US President Donald Trump that the pandas would arrive in Atlanta in the coming days. The loan to the Atlanta zoo was one of the few concrete outcomes of the state visit, which featured goodwill between the two leaders but did not resolve long-standing differences between the two countries.
The new agreement had been announced in April, though dates for the transfer were not given at the time. Under the deal, the two adult pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will be on loan to Zoo Atlanta for 10 years.
Both pandas were born in 2020 and had been kept at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. According to the Xinhua News Agency, Ping Ping, the male, has dark black circles around his eyes, while Fu Shuang, the female, has a forehead that protrudes slightly.
China has long used pandas as part of its global diplomacy, sending them abroad on loan as a gesture of goodwill and allowing such agreements to lapse when ties come under strain. Xi said the loan programme was an example of "friendship between the Chinese and Americans".
The departure of Ping Ping and Fu Shuang marks the return of giant pandas to Atlanta, under a 10-year loan deal announced earlier this year during a summit that otherwise produced little movement on broader differences between China and the United States.
With PTI Inputs
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