D.C. Ready to Welcome China’s Newest Ambassadors: Qing Bao and Bao Li the Giant Pandas
Hold onto your bamboo, America—the pandas are coming.
After a brief panda-less era in the nation’s capital that left Washingtonians fearing their favorite bears were gone for good, two black and white diplomats are en route from Sichuan, China in a specially equipped jet scheduled to arrive in the capital on Tuesday morning.
Cue tears of joy and a sea of smartphones when Qing Bao and Bao Li eventually make their first appearance at the National Zoo—reviving not only a beloved 52-year-old conservation program but perhaps offering a tiny reprieve in the fraught relationship between two rival superpowers.