Two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, arrived at Zoo Atlanta on Sunday morning aboard a dedicated FedEx flight from Chengdu, China. The 10-year loan follows an agreement announced during a Washington summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, restoring the zoo’s panda program after its previous residents returned to China in 2024.
The arrival of the six-year-old male Ping Ping and five-year-old female Fu Shuang marks a new chapter for Zoo Atlanta, which spent the past year upgrading its facilities to accommodate the returning bears. The animals landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport early Sunday morning after a nearly 16-hour non-stop flight from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, traveling as the sole cargo aboard a specialized Boeing 777 aircraft known as the FedEx Panda Express
operated by FedEx Corporation.
Custom-built transport crates holding the pandas were offloaded directly into FedEx trucks for a police-escorted drive to the zoo along a 10-mile route. The pair was accompanied on the journey by fresh bamboo, water, and an assortment of treats, alongside animal specialists from Zoo Atlanta who monitored them throughout the flight under specialized conditions.
Zoo Atlanta Begins Month-Long Quarantine and Prepares for Public Debut
Visitors eager to see the new arrivals will have to wait. Zoo officials confirmed that Ping Ping and Fu Shuang have entered a mandatory quarantine period lasting about a month inside a biosecure area of the wildlife park’s newly transformed giant panda complex. Park leadership has not yet announced a specific date for their public debut as the animals settle into their new surroundings.
Chinese authorities also arranged for several veterinarians and breeders to remain on-site in Atlanta to assist during the quarantine phase following months of collaborative planning. Sam Rivera, the zoo’s vice president of animal health, noted that the park spent the last year expanding the size of the enclosures and ensuring a steady supply of bamboo and trained keepers.
“This is a thrilling day for Zoo Atlanta and a historic moment for the City of Atlanta, the state of Georgia and beyond.”
Raymond B. King, Zoo Atlanta’s president and CEO
King added that the staff felt elated to welcome the bears and eager to share the experience with the community in the coming weeks.
Diplomatic Roots and the Return of Pandas to the United States
The transfer stems directly from a high-level announcement made by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his three-day summit in Washington with U.S. President Donald Trump. The panda loan emerged as one of the few concrete outcomes of the diplomatic meetings aimed at addressing broader tensions between the two nations during the presidential visit.
Beijing has utilized panda diplomacy for over half a century to strengthen alliances and mend diplomatic ties, a tradition initiated in 1972 by Chairman Mao Zedong following Richard Nixon’s presidential visit to China after the Communist Party’s rise to power. President Xi highlighted this ongoing relationship by calling the animals envoys of friendship between Americans and the Chinese people.
Zoo Atlanta previously maintained a quarter-century partnership with China that ended in 2024 when its previous residents—including Yang Yang and Lun Lun—returned to Chengdu. With the arrival of Ping Ping and Fu Shuang under a new 10-year agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association, Atlanta joins the National Zoo and the San Diego Zoo as the only three locations in the United States currently housing giant pandas following nationwide returns in recent years.