Giant pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang arrived in Atlanta on Sunday after a 16-hour charter flight from Chengdu, Chinese state media reported. Zoo Atlanta will host them for 10 years and has renovated their facilities and secured a long-term local bamboo supply.
The transfer had already been agreed, and the pandas’ departure was announced Thursday during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington. China loans pandas abroad through a “panda diplomacy” program intended to foster foreign ties.
Zoo Atlanta previously hosted pandas on loan from China for 25 years, beginning in 1999, but had none since 2024.
