Qing Bao and Bao Li will be the first pandas sent to the US capital in over 24 years. Loaded to the National Zoo for a period of 10 years, the fee paid to the China Wildlife Conservation Society is around one million dollars a year, which is spent on conservation efforts across China.

Male Bao Li and female Qing Bao, both 3 years old, will fill the large void left at the National Zoo’s now-renovated panda exhibit when their predecessors – a couple that had been there for 24 years and their cub – were sent to China in November at the expiration of their lease.