CNN
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Three giant pandas left their enclosure at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, and departed by plane back to China on Wednesday, marking the end of more than 50 years of Chinese pandas being housed at the zoo.
The black and white bears – Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and their youngest cub, Xiao Qi Ji – were transported from the zoo in crates and loaded onto a FedEx aircraft at Dulles International Airport, taking off around 1 p.m.
The Smithsonian National Zoo was the first US zoo to showcase pandas as part of what’s been called “panda diplomacy.”
Zoo staff call it a “hiatus” in their five-decade wildly popular panda…
