A team of zoologists leaves this week for Beijing in hopes of finalizing the negotiations, which were complicated by the bombing of China's Belgrade embassy. Pandas are so precious to Chinese diplomacy that the premier must give his OK. Zoo officials estimate new pandas would each year bring an additional 400,000 visitors and $1.2 million in concession sales.
Why Washington Needs to 'Panda' to Beijing
With 28-year-old Hsing-Hsing suffering from a probably fatal
kidney ailment and Ling-Ling dead, the Smithsonian's National
Zoo is in discussions with China about acquiring another pair of
giant pandas. Both the San Diego Zoo, which has a pair of pandas
on loan, and Zoo Atlanta, which has been promised a pair, have
pledged the going giant-panda price tag: $1 million a year.
But the National Zoo, where admission is free, doesn't have such deep
pockets. Its fund-raisers have pledged $2.5 million over the next
10 years, plus help in conducting a panda census in China and
developing a satellite monitoring system.