Three of the District's cutest, furriest, and most famous residents are leaving D.C. Giant pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji have begun their journey from the Smithsonian's National Zoo to Chengdu, China.

There will be no teary, public goodbye for the beloved animals, however. The pandas are scheduled to be loaded into large metal crates, then lifted onto a FedEx truck before the zoo opens at 10 a.m. Wednesday. From there, they will be taken to Dulles International Airport and loaded onto a FedEx Boeing 777 freight plane.

It's unclear if the zoo will be able to get another pair of pandas from China. The cute creatures have been a fixture in D.C. for the past half-century, ever since Beijing sent the first pair here as a diplomatic gesture during the Cold War. Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, the zoo's first panda couple, arrived following Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972.

Ling-Ling died in 1992 at age 23, while Hsing-Hsing lived until the ripe old age of 28, dying in 1999.

Tian Tian and Mei Xiang arrived in the District in 2000 on a 10-year loan, at a cost of $1 million per year. Since then, the loan agreement was extended three times. The pair had several cubs, including Xiao Qi Ji, who was a pandemic baby born in August 2020.

Generations of D.C.-area kids have grown up obsessed with pandas. On a recent morning before the animals' departure, a third-grade class from a nearby D.C. public school was observing and drawing the pandas at the zoo during a field trip.

"I wish they could stay longer," said third-grader William Mazzetti.

"I'm kind of sad about it," said Olivia Gauchat, another third grader. "But at the same time, I know that the pandas really do belong in China. I know that they do want to go back to China and to see their family."

Indeed, the pandas may see members of their immediate family back in China: Tian Tian and Mei Xiang had three other cubs during their time at the National Zoo: Tai Shan, Bao Bao, and Bei Bei. All three were sent to China at age 4, per the loan agreement.

Shipping three large animals to the other side of the globe isn't necessarily simple, but it is something zoo staffers know how to do.

"We do move animals all the time," says senior curator Bryan Amaral. "It's not necessarily international shipments on charter flights, but we do it all the time. So a lot of the big brushstrokes are kind of the same."

Zoo staff have spent weeks crate-training the bears, getting them used to the large metal boxes they will be traveling in.

A small team of zoo staff are traveling with the pandas, to tend to them during the 19-hour flight. They're taking along a variety of panda snacks for the trip, along with more than 200 lbs. of bamboo.

Don Neiffer, the zoo's chief veterinarian, has made the trip before, traveling to China with Bei Bei.

"Bei Bei was pretty chill for the whole procedure," Neiffer says. "He kind of went back and forth between eating and sleeping, which is what pandas do anyway."

Zoo officials have been focused on the logistics of safely transporting Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji. Now that the animals are leaving, those same officials plan to start talks to secure a new pair of black-and-white bears. Betting on the success of those negotiations — or perhaps to bolster them — the zoo is proceeding with a plan to invest $2.5 million to overhaul the panda house, replacing the faux rock and water features, and adding new climbing structures.

This story originally appeared on DCist.com

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