“We are beyond excited and we cannot wait for them to get here," said Krigman.

“Qing Bao is our more reserved panda, she’s a little cautious, a little bit more nervous about the new noises and sounds,” says Laurie Thompson, assistant curator of giant pandas. “Bao Li is just full of energy, he loves people, he wants to interact. Just kind of opposites.”

The zoo has set Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as the public debut of the pandas, with a public celebration of the new arrivals from Jan. 29 to Feb. 9. Zoo members will have a chance to reserve tickets for a preview between Jan. 10 and Jan. 19. Not at all, so far. But that's by design.

His grandparents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, lived at the National Zoo for nearly a quarter-century and welcomed the zoo’s first-ever surviving panda cubs, including his mother, Bao Bao.

Nearly a year ago, the two resident giant pandas and their cub at the National Zoo were sent back to China. Meet their replacements that have just arrived.