The new pair of pandas, who hail from the Wolong Shenshuping Panda Base in Sichuan province, landed in the United States in late June following a farewell ceremony in China. They were hidden from the public for several weeks as they acclimated to their new homes: a brand-new habitat that the zoo touts as four times larger than its previous panda enclosure.

Yun Chuan’s mother, Zhen Zhen, was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007, and his grandmother Bai Yun was a mainstay of the zoo from her arrival in 1996 until her return to China in 2019.

To mark the pandas’ debut, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Aug. 8 as California Panda Day.

“This is about something much deeper, much richer than just the two beautiful pandas we celebrate,” Newsom said at the ceremony. “It’s about celebrating our common humanity.”

Yun Chuan and Xin Bao arrived as leases on America’s pandas began to expire. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo returned Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their son Xiao Qi Ji in November, and Zoo Atlanta in Georgia is set to return its four pandas this year, which would have left the country with no remaining pandas.

Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged how beloved the National Zoo’s pandas were as he announced plans to send new pandas to the United States during a speech in San Francisco in November. In May, the National Zoo announced it also will receive a new pair of pandas this year.

Lei Guang, executive director of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California at San Diego, cautioned that people shouldn’t attach too much political or diplomatic significance to the animals. “The return of giant pandas is a positive development in what is otherwise still a bleak relationship between the U.S. and China.”

Instead, he saw the pandas as the symbol of what is possible when the two countries cooperate, allowing researchers to study the animals and work on their conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the giant panda as vulnerable to extinction.

At the welcome ceremony, Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng jokingly recalled letters he received from two young panda fans from California proposing that California could send its grizzly bears to China in exchange for pandas.

“Your dream has come true,” Xie said, “even without giving us grizzly bears.”