It's a day thousands of visitors to the National Zoo have been dreading for months, or possibly years. The zoo's famed giant pandas are leaving D.C. and boarding a specially equipped FedEx plane en route to China.
Giant pandas have been a beloved fixture here since the first duo arrived in the 1970s. Wednesday isn't the first time we've seen pandas leave the region, but it's the first time in 23 years that the panda exhibit at the zoo will be empty.
In opening remarks marking the start of the panda's journey, National Zoo Director Brandie Smith said it's a "hard morning." She spoke in front of the zoo's Asia Trail and the recently vacated panda enclosure. The Giant Panda Cam broadcasted an empty hammock.
“It’s a moment of joy because this is one more step in 50 years of a successful giant panda conservation program, and hopefully the beginning of 50 more years,” Smith said. “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 D.C.”
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Xu Xueyuan, a Chinese diplomat, had a parting message for the three pandas, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji.
"As a diplomat in Washington, I say goodbye and bon voyage. As a Chinese official, I say welcome back," Xueyuan said.
Crowds turned out to watch the pandas be carried away from the zoo. A child clutching a panda softie said, "I'm gonna cry when they leave."
Panda motorcade
Mei Xiang was the first panda to be loaded into a white FedEx crate and onto a truck at about 8 a.m. Tian Tian followed close behind. Xiao Qi Ji was carried out in his crate at about 9:15 a.m.
The crates are large and will be moved like heavy fragile equipment. The crates include air holes, up arrows and the words “Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute" on the side.
In specially marked trucks the pandas were escorted by police in a motorcade — fit for a president. They departed the zoo on Connecticut Avenue at about 9:30 a.m. to head towards Dulles International Airport.
The Boeing 777 transporting the pandas, aka the FedEx "Panda Express" plane flew from Memphis and touched down shortly after the pandas left the zoo. Panda fans were there to witness the moment.
The plane can be tracked here using number N886FD. It will be taking off from the airport in the afternoon. They will stop in Alaska to refuel before continuing to China.
Once they left the zoo, signs went up indicating the panda enclosure was closed. The panda cam was taken off the site, with the following message in its place:
"Thank you for visiting the Giant Panda Cam page. Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Xiao Qi Ji have departed the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and are now on their way to China," the site reads.
The pandas will have pounds of bamboo on the journey as well as apples and pears. Two Smithsonian zookeepers and a veterinarian will join them for the roughly 19-hour journey, to ensure the pandas are well cared for.
Here's what to expect as they depart, reactions from those in the District and beyond — and a look back at our panda history (yes, including all those squishy, adorable babies).
Bye-bye, pandas
The National Zoo confirmed that Wednesday is the day the pandas will be leaving their habitat in the U.S. for a new home.
The pandas will be loaded onto a special FedEx truck Wednesday morning and driven to Dulles International Airport in Virginia. From there, they'll be loaded onto a special Boeing 777 FedEx plane, complete with panda and Smithsonian branding, for the trip back to China, where two of the pandas — Mei Xiang and Tian Tian — were born.
"The pandas, animal care experts and flight crew will then depart on a trans-Pacific route, from Washington, D.C., to Chengdu, China," zoo officials said. The flight will include a brief refueling stop in Anchorage, Alaska.
Tian Tian, 26; Mei Xiang, 25, and their youngest offspring, 3-year-old Xiao Qi Ji, will then arrive at the China Wildlife Conservation Association.
It's basically "a panda base, if you will," according to Bryan Amaral, senior curator at the National Zoo.
"It's a place where they have lots and lots of giant pandas, very similar to what you would see — how our giant pandas live here, very similar to that," Amaral said. "They just have a lot more giant pandas than we have. Where we have elephants and, you know, all kinds of other things, they have just pandas."
The panda enclosure will undergo a $2.5 million renovation after the pandas depart, Smith said. The zoo expects to finish the renovations in the next eight to 10 months, and might put other animals in the enclosure temporarily.
After today, the last two pandas in the U.S. will be at the Zoo Atlanta.
'Heartbroken for us'
D.C. residents have been lamenting the impending loss of the pandas since the National Zoo announced its "Panda Palooza" event back in August.
"I'm very sad; I will miss him very much," said Rachel Weidner, a tourist who came from Philadelphia to visit Xiao Qi Ji on his last birthday in the U.S.
"But I know that he will be well taken care of," she said. "And I know that I can still follow him, and maybe even come visit him someday."
Weidner sported an entirely black-and-white outfit during her visit, complete with a headband topped with mini panda heads, hoping that the pandas might see a kindred spirit and "come and say hi" while she was at the zoo.
Those living in the DMV know they had something special with these pandas. As News4's Eun Yang — the biggest panda fan in our newsroom — said, "Seeing these roly-poly black-and-white floof balls at the National Zoo enjoying life has been a joy for me. And I aspire for a time when I, too, can just frolic in my yard, sleep whenever and wherever I want, and eat and eat again."
"They remind me that even in D.C., you can be relaxed and carefree," Yang said.
The pandas' keepers are just as sad about their departure, though they also know the pandas will be well cared for in their new home.
"The one-on-one relationship is probably the best part of my job," said curator of pandas Laurie Thompson. "They know us really well. They are comforted by us and they trust us. So in a time of stress when they don't know what's going on, I suspect they will come and sit next to me and tell him he's a good boy."
Thompson said she was focused on getting the pandas ready to travel — and will "have my breakdown" after the pandas disembark their plane in China.
"I'm excited for their future," Zoo Director Brandie Smith told News4. "Although I'm a little bit heartbroken for us."
A history of giant pandas in the District
Since the beginning of the research exchange program, pandas have always served as a kind of soft diplomacy between China and the U.S. The zoo's first pair of pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were gifted in 1972 to commemorate President Richard Nixon's historic trip to China that year.
Those pandas died in the 1990s, leaving behind no surviving cubs. But Mei Xiang and Tian Tian turned that luck around for the zoo.
The second pair have called the zoo home since 2000, when they were loaned to the Smithsonian Institution by the Chinese government. An agreement with China in 2000 "stipulated [Mei Xiang and Tian Tian] would live at the Zoo for 10 years in exchange for $10 million," according to the zoo's website.
A decade later, the Smithsonian and the China Wildlife Conservation Association signed a new Giant Panda Cooperative Research and Breeding Agreement in January 2011, which stated the pandas would stay until December 2015. That contract was extended to 2020, then again to 2023, shortly before each previous contract expired.
But there are no more extensions.
Previous panda departures
Over the years, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian bore four surviving cubs amid several losses. Starting with Tai Shan, born in 2005, the cubs became the first ever to grow up at the National Zoo after decades of dashed hopes.
One after another, the roly-poly babies delighted visitors and Panda Cam viewers with their antics.
The three oldest offspring each moved to China when they were a few years old.
Tai Shan took his flight in 2010, to much fanfare and sadness from District residents.
Bao Bao, his younger sister, traveled back in 2017 and settled into her new home quickly, according to the Associated Press.
"True to her character, Bao Bao was very independent and began taking food from her new keeper immediately," the Smithsonian zookeeper who traveled with the panda to China said in 2017.
Bei Bei, the third surviving cub, traveled back in 2013, landing safely after a 16-hour direct flight complete with road snacks in the form of bamboo, apples, sweet potatoes, leaf eater biscuits and water.
Why are the pandas leaving now?
The short answer is that this year is simply the expiration date for the research agreement contract between the U.S. and China. But the long answer is a little more complicated than that.
The pandas are leaving D.C. at a time when, according to the Associated Press, there's a larger trend of China pulling back its pandas from multiple western zoos as their agreements expire. It's happening as diplomatic tensions run high between Beijing and a number of western governments.
National Zoo officials have remained tightlipped about the prospects of renewing or extending the agreement, and repeated attempts by News4 and the Associated Press for comment on the state of the negotiations did not receive a response.
Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, called the trend “punitive panda diplomacy" when talking to the AP. He noted that two other American zoos have lost their pandas in recent years, while zoos in Scotland and Australia are facing similar departures with no signs of their loan agreements being renewed.
Despite the links to U.S.-China diplomacy, the negotiations are researcher-to-researcher and not based in politics, Smith, the National Zoo's director, told News4 back in August.
"We're a bunch of scientists; we're a bunch of animal people," Smith said. "This is not a political conversation. This is absolutely a conversation between colleagues talking about, what's best for the overall program, and also, what can be best for individual animals?"
While the zoo won't be quite the same without our giant friends to roll around eating bamboo, at least we have Basil to console us.
The Associated Press and Carissa DiMargo contributed to this report.
