Two pandas arrive at Zoo Atlanta on 10-year loan

Two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, arrived in Atlanta on Sunday under a 10-year loan agreement with China, beginning their return to Zoo Atlanta nearly two years after the facility’s previous pandas went back to China. The zoo said the animals will spend about a month in quarantine before they can go on public view, and it has not announced a debut date. The male and female pandas arrived from Chengdu, southwestern China, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport aboard a FedEx flight, according to reports from the airport and Zoo Atlanta. They were born in 2020 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Their loan is covered by an agreement between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association. The arrival follows Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington, where he described pandas as envoys of friendship between China and the United States and said the pair would be on their way to Atlanta soon. The loan agreement had been announced in April 2026, before Xi’s public announcement of the arrival timeline. The timing placed the pandas’ arrival shortly after the visit, but the agreement itself predated it.