Golden State welcomes pandas to San Diego Zoo with California Panda Day

California is celebrating the public unveiling of an exhibit at the San Diego Zoo featuring two giant pandas brought in from China in a big way, with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) proclaiming a day of celebration in their honor.

The zoo unveiled its Panda Ridge exhibit on Thursday, a month after the two pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, landed in the United States. The pandas are the first to enter the U.S. in 21 years.

“Our newest residents will bring joy to our visitors and symbolize the enduring spirit of international conservation efforts. Together with our partners, we continue to make significant strides in ensuring a hopeful future for this iconic species,” Paul Baribault, the president and CEO of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said in a statement last week.

Newsom was on hand for the unveiling of the Panda Ridge exhibit at the San Diego Zoo on Thursday after issuing his proclamation touting the pandas as a part of the collaboration between China and California.

"This conservation collaboration is part of California and China’s long history of working together towards shared goals. Building on our strong foundation of partnership and deep cultural and economic ties, I traveled to China last year to advance priority issues including climate action and economic development," Newsom said in his proclamation of California Panda Day for Thursday.

"We hope that the newly arrived panda 'envoys of friendship' will lead to further exchanges and cooperation between California and China," he added.

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The unveiling of the pandas in San Diego comes less than a year after the giant pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., were brought back to China.

The National Zoo announced in May that two panda bears, Qing Bao and Bao Li, would be sent from China to the zoo by the end of 2024.