Even a mayor, governor and diplomat couldn’t outshine the San Diego Zoo’s newest celebrities Thursday, as a long line of admirers formed to greet the first two giant pandas to enter the United States in 21 years. On loan from China, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao made their public debut to an adoring crowd. Not only are the zoo’s newest residents the “furriest, cutest San Diegans,” according to Mayor Todd Gloria, these pandas are diplomats, symbolizing hope for future generations of their species.
“We are so glad to have them here,” Gloria said. “I cannot wait for San Diego to see these two magnificent creatures, and by doing so, to recommit ourselves to the important work of conserving the giant panda ..
. in celebration of two cultures coming together to do something truly magnificent.” Chinese dignitaries and local elected officials, including Gov.
Gavin Newsom, welcomed the pandas to San Diego with a private ceremony Thursday morning, complete with entertainment from traditional Chinese dancers and singers. By early afternoon, hundreds of zoo visitors had gathered outside Panda Ridge, the zoo’s newly renovated habitat for the pandas, anxiously awaiting their turn to meet the duo. “It’s just such a great message of conservation and preservation for all the animals for our future,” said former San Diego Zoo volunteer Keena Butcher.
China owns and leases all giant pandas in U.S. zoos and has loaned the animals for decades as “panda diplomacy” to strengthen national ties and advance panda conservation efforts.
Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S., said the recent trade with the San Diego Zoo, China’s first partner in panda conservation 30 years ago, was a “dream come true.
” Newsom echoed that sentiment, saying the panda loan was a symbol of a larger partnership for a greater good. “This is about something much deeper, much richer than just the two beautiful pandas,” Newsom said. “It’s about celebrating our common humanity.
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We’ve got to triumph together.” Gina Luce and her fiancé, Martin Guzman, traveled from Orange County to see the pandas. Although the afternoon heat beat down on the line, both held a stuffed panda, with unfaltering grins on their faces.
“It’s worth the wait ...
to make memories (together),” said Guzman. “My grandkids call me ‘the bear,’ so I tell them that I’m the brown panda bear.” Yun Chuan and Xin Bao are the first pandas in San Diego since 2019.
They arrived at the zoo on June 27 after a conservation agreement was signed in February. Butcher, the former zoo volunteer, was thrilled she was lucky enough to be in town when the pandas made their debut. “Right now, I live in Italy, so I’m here for our annual summer vacation, and it was perfect timing to see the pandas,” Butcher said.
Butcher was most excited to see Yun Chuan, pronounced “yoon chu-ahn,” the 5-year-old son of Zhen Zhen, who in 2007 became the fourth cub to be born at the San Diego Zoo. “To continue that San Diego lineage and the partnership between the United States and China, it’s just a really great positive thing for our world,” she said. Yun, which means “cloud,” is a nod to his grandmother Bai Yun — who lived at the San Diego Zoo for 23 years — while Chuan means “big river,” a nod to the province of Sichuan, where he’s from.
Wildlife care specialists say Yun Chuan is easygoing and loves his bamboo almost as much as he loves his afternoon naps. They hope he will eventually mate with his counterpart, 4-year-old Xin Bao, pronounced “sing bao,” and produce a cub or two. Xin Bao’s name means “precious treasure of prosperity and abundance.
” She’s naturally playful and curious and can often be seen atop the hillside in her new habitat, munching on bamboo, according to wildlife care specialists. It’s that jovial attitude that resonated most with some of the zoo’s younger visitors, including 6-year-olds Abigail Wang and Reverie Wood, both of whom had donned black and white striped attire for their visits Thursday. “They’re playful,” Abigail said shyly as she stroked her fluffy panda purse.
A few were also eager to show off their unique, panda-inspired clothing pieces, including Butcher, who’d gotten her panda shirt years ago in Greece. La Mesa resident Lucy Conover twirled in her black and white dress covered in stitched pandas and bamboo. “I got it in high school and I’m a master’s student now, so I’ve been tailoring this dress so I can wear it as long as possible because it’s one of my favorite dresses,” she said.
Another former zoo volunteer, Conover said her visit to the pandas Thursday invoked fond memories of her childhood. “I was here on one of the last days the pandas were here, and I remember how sad everybody was to see them go,” she recalled. “I just thought it would be so uplifting to come here the day they returned.
” She woke up early Thursday and was one of the first ones to get a complimentary timed ticket — one of three ways for the public to see the pandas, along with joining a stand-by line or paying for an exclusive, 60-minute early morning walking tour. Most zoo visitors said the process to get timed tickets to see the pandas was easy. Many like Conover had arrived early and were able to secure their 15-minute time slots at ticket booths before the zoo opened that morning.
Longtime San Diego resident Harvey Rogoff said he was the first in line around 7:15 a.m. at the booth.
“You have to plan ahead,” he said. A photographer, Rogoff had also prepped two DSLR cameras — one with a long lens, one short — and donned a Chinese soccer jersey for the visit. However, it wasn’t his first rodeo.
He says he’s photographed every panda to ever reside at the zoo over the years, including all six cubs. In fact, he took a print he’d taken of Zhen Zhen as a baby with him to China when he visited the Chengdu Panda Base and presented it to the director of panda research as a gift. The pandas were also a welcome return for other long-time admirers, like Kiri Cragin-Folwell, who recalls the two most important things she needed to know when she worked at the zoo during her high school years: where the bathrooms and the pandas were.
“That’s 90 percent of your questions (you’d get),” she said, laughing. It seems as though balance at the San Diego Zoo has once again been restored..
