The Washington Post-Panda Palooza gives fans another chance to say goodbye to zoos trio
September 23, 2023 5 min 954 words
这篇报道关于国家史密森动物园的大熊猫告别活动引发了许多观众的情感共鸣。大熊猫一直是华盛顿的象征，他们已经陪伴了四代人，10位总统。这些可爱的生物成为城市的一部分，无论是在公共交通卡上还是各种周边商品上，都能看到它们的形象。因此，它们的离去标志着一个时代的结束。 这个告别活动也彰显了人们对大熊猫的深厚感情。来自不同年龄和地域的人们涌向动物园，为了一睹大熊猫的风采，不惜冒雨等待。对于许多人来说，这是一次难忘的经历，特别是那些小时候就梦想见到大熊猫的人。 这篇报道突显了大熊猫的文化重要性，不仅是动物学意义上的，还是华盛顿城市的一部分。大熊猫已经超越了动物本身，成为了一种象征，代表了人们对自然界的热爱和珍惜。尽管大熊猫即将回到中国，但它们的影响将继续存在，激发人们对野生动物保护的关注和热情。 这个告别活动也让人们反思大熊猫在人们生活中的特殊地位，以及它们在教育中的作用。许多教师将大熊猫引入课堂，用它们来激发学生对动物和环保的兴趣。这展示了大熊猫在文化和教育方面的重要性，它们是一个跨越年龄和文化的纽带。 总的来说，这篇报道充分展示了大熊猫在人们心中的特殊地位，以及它们对华盛顿城市和整个社会的影响。尽管离别令人伤感，但也值得庆祝这些可爱生物对人们的贡献。
2023-09-22T15:42:50.746Z
Carolyn Smith thrust her arm over a chain-link fence, snapping photos of the young panda pressed against a stone wall.
She smiled as Xiao Qi Ji meticulously nibbled on the remaining remnants of an ice cake, hoisting herself a few inches to get a better view of the black-and-white bear beyond the barrier.
Saturday marked the Columbus, Ohio, resident’s fifth visit to the National Zoo within two years. She donned a zoo poncho, a red and khaki panda hat and a tote bag also featuring the animal.
“The only thing I am not wearing is my panda socks,” said Smith, 60. “I wore those yesterday.”
Smith was among the crowds of people who came to the zoo Saturday to kick off Panda Palooza, a nine-day celebration to honor the facility’s giant pandas who are scheduled to return to China by Dec. 7 after being on loan in the United States. Zoo officials previously said that Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, both 25 years old, are heading back because they are elderly. Xiao Qi Ji, their 3-year-old son, will also go because he is nearing breeding age.
National Zoo’s giant pandas will head to China in three years
The trio are among eight that the zoo has housed since 1972, when President Richard M. Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon made a historic Cold War visit to communist China, and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai gave the United States two 18-month-old pandas, Ling-Ling, a female, and Hsing-Hsing, a male. Now, the pandas’ looming departure will leave the fate of the National Zoo’s more than 50-year giant panda program unsettled, with officials facing the dim prospect in the next few months of having no pandas for the first time in years.
Ling-Ling died in 1992, and Hsing-Hsing died in 1999. There was a gap of a year and eight days between Hsing-Hsing’s death and the arrival of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian on Dec. 6, 2000. The latter were not gifts but were part of ongoing temporary lease agreements. Three other pandas born at the zoo returned to China after they turned 4 as part of the zoo program.
More than four generations of zoo-goers from Washington and around the country have had the chance to experience the city’s giant pandas, and 10 presidents have held office since they came to town. Former first lady Michelle Obama helped name one of the giant panda cubs. Nixon once discussed giant panda mating problems with a newspaper editor. President Bill Clinton noted that “they have long claws and very big teeth.”
National Zoo celebrates panda matriarch’s 25th birthday, months before set departure
The giant panda became a symbol of Washington, along with the White House and the Capitol. The image of the animal has appeared on buses, Metro cards, sneakers, shirts, slippers, pajamas, onesies, mugs, water bottles, totes, scarves, scrunchies and hats. There are giant panda backpacks, bookends, books, puzzles and Christmas ornaments.
On Saturday, Zoo officials canceled some scheduled outdoor palooza festivities in light of stormy weather. But that didn’t keep swarms of people — bundled in raincoats and bucket hats — from hovering outside the panda sanctuary as a misty, cold rain sprayed across their faces.
Laura Tatlock, of Raleigh, N.C., has wanted to see the pandas for about five years, and said she was happy to finally be able to make it happen. Her husband, Alexander Hamilton, 27, held their infant-aged daughter as Tatlock stood up against the chain-link fence, watching Xiao Qi Ji slide down a hilly slope.
“It’s very bittersweet,” Tatlock, 26, said. “It’s the only time we’ll get to see them.”
Victoria Thomaides, 25, said she spent her childhood obsessing over pandas, though her infatuation had faded since growing up. In the roughly seven years since she moved to D.C., Thomaides confessed that she had not seen the pandas once before this weekend.
“I recently moved to a neighborhood closer to the zoo,” she said, watching Mei Xiang from an overlook. “And when I heard about this, it’s like I had a calling that I had to go.”
D.C. resident William King, 30, rushed to catch a glimpse of the pandas before the animals sauntered back into a closed-off part of the sanctuary. He was hesitant to spend time outdoors on a rainy day, but jetted out the door after pulling up the giant panda cam and seeing the three bears munching on ice cakes.
National Zoo’s female giant panda has a new ‘miracle’ cub
Cyndy Taylor, 52, said the pandas have been a constant throughout her life.
As a child in the ’80s, her parents took her to see the pandas. Even as an adult, she kept coming back.
When the covid-19 pandemic hit, Taylor watched the Zoo’s live stream of the 2020 birth of Xiao Qi Ji, intently listening for the cub’s first cry. And as a first-grade teacher at Yorkshire Elementary School in Prince George’s County, Md., she has made the pandas a staple in her lessons for a class in which 15 of her 19 students are learning English.
“They love animals. They love pandas, and it gets them talking,” she said. “There is just such a deep love of these creatures, even at a young age, and no matter where you’re from. It’s multigenerational.”