{"id":810,"date":"2024-06-27T08:16:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T08:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/?p=810"},"modified":"2024-06-27T08:17:15","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T08:17:15","slug":"first-new-pandas-to-arrive-in-u-s-in-over-20-years-are-on-their-way-from-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/?p=810","title":{"rendered":"First new pandas to arrive in U.S. in over 20 years are on their way from China"},"content":{"rendered":"

YA\u2019AN, China \u2014 The first new\u00a0giant pandas<\/a>\u00a0to arrive in the U.S. in more than two decades are traveling to\u00a0San Diego<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0China<\/a>\u00a0as Beijing resumes using the black-and-white bears as a tool of diplomacy.<\/p>\n

A farewell ceremony Wednesday near the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base in China\u2019s southwestern Sichuan province was attended by representatives of both China and the U.S., including San Diego Zoo officials and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. The panda crates were then loaded into a truck that drove to the airport in Chengdu, the provincial capital.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Gloria said he was \u201coverjoyed\u201d that pandas would be returning to the San Diego Zoo, which has cooperated with China on pandas for almost 30 years but hasn\u2019t hosted any since 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt continues our long history of being really positive actors in the conservation of animals generally, but particularly endangered animals, like the pandas used to be,\u201d he said in an interview at the panda base before the send-off ceremony.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a step forward for relations between the U.S. and China, the world\u2019s two largest economies, as they try to repair ties strained by disputes over trade, technology, the\u00a0status of Taiwan<\/a>\u00a0and other issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a wonderful way to engage our two countries in something that is undeniably positive,\u201d Gloria said.<\/p>\n

The pandas\u2019 departure was surrounded by secrecy to avoid drawing crowds, including fans whose\u00a0enthusiasm for the bears can verge on obsessive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

San Diego Zoo officials said that the bears, which are on loan for 10 years, wouldn\u2019t be viewable by the public for several weeks while they get settled and that their debut date would be shared later.<\/p>\n

\"Two-year-old<\/picture>
Pandas have been a symbol of U.S.-China cooperation for decades.<\/span>Roshan Patel \/ Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YA\u2019AN, China \u2014 The first new\u00a0giant pandas\u00a0to arrive in the U.S. in more than two decades are traveling to\u00a0San Diego\u00a0from\u00a0China\u00a0as Beijing resumes using the black-and-white bears as a tool of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[334],"views":59,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forefrontnews.cn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}