China takes the last pandas from the USA (3 photos + 2 videos)
Zoo Atlanta's four pandas will return to China by the end of 2024. Over the course of a quarter of a century, Lun Lun and Yang Yang became the favorites of the Americans and gave birth to twins Ya Lun and Xi Lun. 
Lun Lun and Yang Yang arrived in Atlanta in 1999 as part of an agreement that would expire in a few months. Ya Lun and Xi Lun were born at the zoo in 2016. 
"Under the terms of the agreement, the offspring of Lun Lun and Yang Yang will go to China. All five older siblings of Ya Lun and Xi Lun now live in China," the zoo said in a statement released in November.
The giant panda, or bamboo bear, is the symbol of China. Sending these animals to different countries is a gesture of goodwill, dubbed "panda diplomacy."
The Memphis Zoo gave away its last surviving panda in April 2023, and the San Diego Zoo gave away its last surviving panda in 2019. Last November, three giant pandas from the Washington Zoo returned to their homeland.
It has been announced that China will be sending pandas Yun Chuan and Xin Bao to the San Diego Zoo this summer on a 10-year lease.
The San Francisco Zoo also hopes to get the symbol of the Middle Kingdom. So, last month, the city's mayor, London Breed, traveled to China, but the Senate called her aspiration "chasing pandas" while the city "struggles with rising crime and homelessness."
