Washington s National Zoo says bye bye to beloved giant pandas streetinsider.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from streetinsider.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The National Zoo’s three giant pandas departed Washington, D.C. on Wednesday morning, marking the beginning of their trip back to China and an end, at least for now, to 50 years of “panda diplomacy” with Beijing.
Washington's National Zoo bid a tearful farewell to its beloved trio of giant pandas on Wednesday as the long-serving goodwill ambassadors to the U.S. capital began a journey back to China that was announced earlier this year. The bears - Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji - hunkered down in crates made of steel and plexiglass that were lifted into a truck and then loaded into a Boeing 777F cargo plane dubbed "FedEx Panda Express." The pandas, accompanied by three zookeepers, will travel to a reserve in China’s mountainous Sichuan province, where an estimated 1,800 pandas are still found in the wild, according to the National Zoo.
By Kevin Fogarty and Rich McKay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington's National Zoo bid a tearful farewell to its beloved trio of giant pandas on Wednesd.
Washington s National Zoo says bye bye to beloved giant pandas reuters.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reuters.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.