“It was undoubtedly value it,” Barker mentioned. “I might do it once more in a heartbeat.”

Whereas her journey might have been a bit excessive, she is much from alone in her want to go to the pandas whereas People can achieve this with no passport.

Journey agent Lainey Melnick, 61, flew from Austin to Atlanta for the Dec. 8 weekend “simply to see the pandas.” She had beforehand seen them in D.C., and in Japan, however knew that Atlanta could be her final alternative for some time.

“I might even fly to China to see them, however it’s so much simpler to fly to Atlanta,” Melnick mentioned.

Attendance at Zoo Atlanta has been increased than regular the previous few months, and that’s “probably” as a result of pandas, however different elements, like climate, might also be taking part in a task, mentioned zoo spokeswoman Rachel Davis.

Anecdotally, there’s little doubt that panda FOMO is a motivator. On Fb teams just like the Final Panda Fan, individuals have been sharing their journey plans and inspiring each other to make the journey. My journey got here at my daughter’s suggestion. We made two outings to the zoo throughout an extended weekend explicitly to see the pandas. We met Barker, 59, and her daughter, Helena, 30, on Dec. 11 after a zoo worker commented on what number of out-of-towners had been visiting.

I introduced that we’d flown in from Colorado. One other household had pushed six hours from Kentucky. Barker outdid us all, sharing the story of her drive. She had been watching the “As we speak” present when she heard that the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo in Washington, D.C., was returning its three big pandas, and that the 4 in Atlanta have been additionally because of depart.

“With so many issues occurring with China and the US, I figured in the event that they pulled the pandas out I might by no means get to see them,” she mentioned.

A tax preparer, she knew her busy season was quick approaching and that she wanted to behave rapidly if she was going to take the highway journey. (For many who can’t make it to the Atlanta zoo, there are panda cams.)

“A storm was arising the East Coast,” she recalled. “We didn’t care. It wasn’t holding us away from the pandas.”

She drove alone from her house to Virginia Seashore to select up her daughter, then they continued to Atlanta. Almost half the drive was within the pouring rain.

“We stayed in a single day at a motel, obtained up and have been on the zoo when it opened,” she mentioned. In all, they spent about two hours watching the enormous pandas, together with listening to an academic speak by a zookeeper who allow them to contact a pattern of panda fur. About 4 hours have been spent exploring the remainder of the zoo. Then they obtained again of their automotive and retraced their route.

As a result of there’s no set departure date but, the Atlanta zoo continues to be “within the technique of planning methods we’ll have fun this very particular legacy.” But when the Panda Palooza that the Nationwide Zoo held as a “cele-bear-ation” of its pandas any indication, the variety of arriving panda lovers will go up.

Visits to the Nationwide Zoo between Sept. 26 and Nov. 9 — roughly the beginning of Panda Palooza to the bears’ departure day — elevated 179 p.c over the identical interval in 2022, mentioned Ellie Tahmaseb, a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Greater than 250,000 individuals entered the Nationwide Zoo over that six-week interval final yr, together with visitors from Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Guam.

“Though I can’t say definitively this was as a result of big pandas, it’s exhausting to take a look at the information and are available to every other conclusions,” she mentioned.

The Nationwide Zoo had been practically synonymous with pandas after housing them for greater than 51 years. However, the primary panda within the U.S. arrived in 1936 when it was introduced over by socialite Ruth Harkness, then acquired by Chicago’s Brookfield zoo, the place it died at 16 months outdated.

Panda diplomacy between the China and the US started in 1972, when Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling have been offered as items to commemorate President Richard M. Nixon’s historic journey to the communist nation. The pair was exhibited on the Nationwide Zoo.

Within the Nineteen Eighties, China moved to “mortgage” pandas to zoos underneath 10-year contracts that not solely rewarded pleasant relations, but additionally introduced in enormous cash to China’s conservation packages. The Atlanta zoo alone has contributed greater than $16 million.

The offers have been usually prolonged, however after President Donald Trump added tariffs to Chinese language items, a commerce warfare ensued, and by 2019, the three bears on the San Diego zoo had been returned. The only bear in Memphis went again in April. The trio on the Nationwide Zoo was returned in early November.

Atlanta has had pandas for practically a quarter-century, with Chinese language-born Lun Lun and Yang Yang arriving in 1999, once they have been each 2 years outdated. Their contract is about to run out in late 2024. A part of the settlement mentioned that any offspring born within the zoo could be returned to China, so 5 of the pair’s seven cubs have already gone again. The 2 youngest, Ya Lun and Xi Lun, are actually 7 years outdated and anticipated to journey to China this yr as effectively.

The zoo anticipates getting “important advance discover to share” earlier than any precise return dates, Davis mentioned. And, whereas there’s some hope that panda diplomacy might reside on, it’s not clear if, when or the place that may occur.

There’s little doubt the US will miss its pandas, however it’s much less clear that the pandas will miss the US. Tahmaseb mentioned throughout Xiao Qi Ji’s birthday celebration on the Nationwide Zoo this summer time, the bear seemed on the crowd singing to him and walked away, leaving his cake and his followers behind.

Throughout my two days watching the pandas, there was plenty of sleeping, consuming of bamboo, and hanging out on a raised platform, interspersed with a little bit of strolling and a few animated inspecting of the water fountain.

Helena Barker mentioned the pandas have been asleep when she and her mom first arrived. Nonetheless, she’s was “past thrilled” to see them in individual.

“I couldn’t comprise my pleasure,” she mentioned.