China has agreed to a 10-year lease of the pandas, which will run through April 2034. The zoo will pay the Chinese government $1 million a year to display the pandas. The news was a surprise, given the tense state of affairs between the U.S. and Chinese governments.

Half a year after the nation’s capital bid an emotional farewell to its giant pandas, the National Zoo is expecting a renewed surge in panda-mania with the announcement that two more of the

China will send two young giant pandas to Washington, the United States' National Zoo said on Wednesday, months after the zoo returned three of the bears amid heightened tensions between the two global superpowers.