National Zoo's 3 Giant Pandas Return to China,Ending 50 Years of 'Panda Diplomacy'

The National Zoo's three giant pandas departedWashington on Wednesday morning, marking thebeginning of their trip back to China and an end, atleast for now, to 50 years of "panda diplomacy" withBeijing.

Giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian and their cubXiao Qi Ji were loaded into crates Wednesday morningby zoo and FedEx staff, and they then were brought toDulles International Airport in northern Virginia. Thepandas will be transported on the custom-designed"FedEx Panda Express" Boeing 777F aircraft for the19-hour journey with a stopover in Alaska.

The pandas' departure follows a series of otherpandas being pulled from multiple Western zoos asagreements expire, with some foreign policy expertsnoting it could be indicative of growing diplomatictensions between Beijing and several Western
governments.

But zoo officials say it was simply time for the pandaparents to go home, with a three-year extension totheir stay set to expire. Mei Xiang is 25 years old, and Tian Tian is 26.