SAN DIEGO — California’s governor flew in for the young bears’ debut. Throngs of media gathered inside the zoo, while the city of San Diego warned of traffic jams ahead of the much-anticipated event Thursday. The San Diego Zoo rolled out the red carpet for the first public showing of its newest residents, who were already dressed in black-and-white attire.
The two giant pandas were seen sunbathing and chowing down on bamboo in their new home as the first pandas to enter the U.S. in two decades.
For years, the Chinese government has loaned pandas to zoos around the world in a practice called “panda diplomacy.” These fuzzy ambassadors have long been a symbol of the U.S.
-China friendship, ever since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., in 1972.
As relations soured between the two countries, China stopped renewing panda loans to U.S. zoos, making the arrival of San Diego Zoo’s newest residents a big relief to many.
The city’s previous pandas left in 2018 and 2019. During his meeting with President Joe Biden in San Francisco last November, Chinese president Xi Jinping said he was “ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation” and pledged to reduce tensions between the two countries. Only four other giant pandas currently reside in the United States, all at the zoo in Atlanta.
However, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo will receive a new pair of pandas by the end of the year after its last bears .