(NEWSnet) – Three giant pandas departed Wednesday morning from Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington D.C., headed to China in a move that was announced weeks ago.

The giant pandas – Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Xiao Qi Ji – are assigned to a “dedicated and custom-decaled” FedEx Boeing 777F aircraft nicknamed “Panda Express,” the zoo said in a press release Wednesday. The flight from Dulles International Airport to Chengdu, China, will take 19 hours and will include a refueling stop in Alaska.

Each panda has an individual, custom-made crate that they have become acclimated to in recent weeks. FedEx trucks then delivered the animals in their crates to the airport.

 

“As Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Xiao Qi Ji depart for their new home in China, they leave behind a tremendous legacy in Washington, D.C.,” said Brandie Smith, the John and Adrienne Mars director of the Smithsonian National Zoo. “It is exciting and humbling that people around the world have followed these pandas, shared in our joys and rooted for our success.”

Once in China, the animals will remain in quarantine for 30 days and then be settled into their new home.

Mei Xiang and Tain Tian arrived in Washington D.C. in 2000, and were the second pair of giant pandas to live at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Three of their surviving cubs are already in China; Xiao Qi Ji was born in 2020.

The pandas have been a favorite with in-person visitors to the zoo and those enjoying views remotely via the "Giant Panda Cam."

Beijing has lent out pandas across the world for research and species protection efforts, the Associated Press reports. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s exchange agreement with China’s government, set up 50 years ago, is expiring and an extension agreement was not reached.

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