It was a touching moment at the National Zoo in Washington, US: tens of thousands of people from all over the country, and even the world, came to say goodbye to one of the area's most popular residents (居民), BaoBao—a 3-year-old panda.
BaoBao left for her new home in Chengdu, China on Feb 22. She's the first female panda born in the US and has won the hearts of many Americans. A number of goodbye events were held, including a dumpling party and cake feedings. Information about her flight was even made available online so that people could keep learning about her journey.
It had been decided that BaoBao must return to China according to an agreement between China and the US. In fact, most pandas around the world are borrowed from China and baby pandas born abroad will be sent back before they're four.
Being native to China and loved around the world, the cute black-and-white animals have played an important role in the country's diplomacy (外交). This is known as "Panda Diplomacy". Animal diplomacy dates back to the Tang Dynasty (唐朝), when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor. China restarted panda diplomacy in the 1950s when China sent two pandas to the Moscow Zoo. By 1982, China had given 23 pandas to nine different countries. The most famous was China's gift of two pandas, Ling-Ling and Xing-Xing, to the US in 1972 after President Richard Nixon's visit to China.
However, since early 1980s, China has stopped giving away pandas for free because their number is becoming smaller. For example, zoos in the US, UK and France "rent" pandas from China. The money they pay for the pandas, which are from tens of thousands to millions of US dollars, was used to protect and breed (繁育) the endangered animals.
Besides pandas, elephants and dogs have also been given as diplomatic gifts. In 1953, Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh sent Chairman Mao Zedong two Asian elephants as gifts as a symbol of the friendship between the two countries.
