Washington pandas leaving for China in style on FedEx jumbo jet

The beloved giant pandas at Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., are leaving earlier than expected — and in style.

Giant pandas Mei Xiang, 25, and Tian Tian, 26, who arrived at the Smithsonian in December 2000, and their 3-year-old cub Xiao Qi Ji will be leaving to go back to China before Nov. 15, well ahead of their stay’s expiration date of Dec. 7.

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Their trip to the China Wildlife Conservation Society will be carefully planned and executed, including their ride to Bejing: the world’s largest twin-engine cargo plane courtesy of FedEx, according to Axios.

Courtesy of FedEx

Since Russian airspace is closed to American carriers, the plane will take a different route to bring the pandas to China. The carrier will leave Dulles International Airport in Virginia and land in Alaska to refuel before arriving at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in western China.

These pandas will not be free to move about the cabin, but they will each have individual shipping carriers filled with bamboo and their favorite snacks, including pears, butternut squash, leaf-eater biscuits, and sugar cane, keeper Mariel Lally told Axios. 

Jose Luis Magana/AP

They will be well entertained and have been acclimated to their carriers months in advance, so they will be familiar with “all the sounds and smells,” Lally said.

Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji will not be flying alone. The pandas will fly first class with their own veterinarian and keepers in the jump seats.

“The whole reason we fly is so we can go back and offer them whatever they need — food, water, you name it,” Lally said.

Courtesy of FedEx

When the bears take flight, it will be the first time in over two decades that the National Zoo will be without its famous pandas. Their stay in the U.S. was part of a partnership between the zoo’s Giant Panda Cooperative Research and Breeding Agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Society. The pandas were expected to stay in the U.S. for 10 years as part of a $10 million deal with China, but the agreement was extended multiple times.

Under the original agreement, Mei Xian and Tian Tian’s cubs must be returned to China when they turn 4 years old. Though Xiao Qi Ji will be 3 years old upon departure, officials said in 2020 that it’s in the cub’s best interest to move with his parents.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

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The zoo held a nine-day “Panda Palooza” event in September so visitors could say goodbye to the pandas.

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo has housed pandas since 1972, working with China to study the animals’ biology, behavior, and diseases. The 50th anniversary of the first arrival of giant pandas at the zoo was in 2022.