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

Giant pandas are icons in Washington, D.C. For more than five decades, the National Zoo has created and maintained one of the world’s foremost giant panda conservation programs, helping move the panda from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the global list of species at risk of extinction.

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.