The zoo has set Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as the public debut of the pandas, with a public celebration of the new arrivals from Jan. 29 to Feb. 9. Zoo members will have a chance to reserve tickets for a preview between Jan. 10 and Jan. 19. Not at all, so far. But that's by design.

A pair of pandas from China arrived at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington on Tuesday, in a revival of so-called panda diplomacy after an 11-month pause that had left countless zoogoers disappointed by the absence of the lovable black-and-white bears.

Two giant pandas, a female named Qing Bao and a male named Bao Li, landed at Dulles International Airport on Tuesday and made their way to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., from Chengdu, China. This comes almost a year after the zoo bid farewell to its last giant pandas, Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Xiao Qi Ji in November.