Two giant pandas, five-year-old Fu Shuang and six-year-old Ping Ping, arrived in Atlanta on 27 September after a 16-hour flight from Chengdu. Their arrival followed a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who described the pandas as an “envoy of friendship”; the move has been presented as a sign of renewed co-operation between the countries.

The pandas travelled on a FedEx Boeing 777, with water, bamboo and treats for the journey. Zoo Atlanta has upgraded their habitat, including larger day rooms and locally grown bamboo, and will care for them through a conservation partnership with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. The zoo’s previous panda agreement ended in 2024, leaving it without pandas for two years.