ANKARA
Two giant pandas departed southwestern China for their new home at Zoo Atlanta under a 10-year loan agreement between China and the US, media reports said early Sunday.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang left Chengdu after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during a three-day summit with US President Donald Trump in Washington that the pandas would arrive in Atlanta in the coming days, according to NBC News.
The agreement was first announced in April, but no arrival date had been specified.
Both pandas were born in 2020 and have been kept at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
Ping Ping is male, while Fu Shuang is female.
Zoo Atlanta has been without giant pandas since its previous pandas left in 2024.
The panda loan was among the concrete outcomes of Xi’s state visit to the US, which included expressions of goodwill between the two leaders but did not resolve longstanding differences between Washington and Beijing, the outlet reported.
China has long used panda loan programs as part of its diplomacy with other countries.
Xi described the program as an example of “friendship between the Chinese and Americans.”
