Staffers at Memphis Zoo escort Ya Ya to depart the zoo on April 26, 2023. Photo: CCTV

The long-awaited return journey of female giant panda Ya Ya, who has lived in the Memphis Zoo in the US state of Tennessee for 20 years, finally started on Wednesday local time, according to media reports. The news resulted in heated cheers of Chinese netizens as they had been closely watching and looking forward to Ya Ya's return for months over concerns about the giant panda's health. 

Ya Ya had left the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee, the US, starting her journey back to China on Wednesday morning, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

When asked for a response to the latest progress on Ya Ya's return journey, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at the Wednesday press conference that Ya Ya will soon return to China as arranged. Related parties in China and the US are actively promoting related preparations and arrangements, Mao said.

The transport plan and air route as well as some emergency measures have been implemented in order to guarantee safe journey for Ya Ya, Mao noted. 

According to information released by Chinese flight tracking platform Feichangzhun, FedEx special flight FX9759 would take off at 12:05 pm Wednesday US time from the Memphis airport for the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The flight duration is estimated to be nearly 16 hours.
 
"FedEx has a long history of safely transporting giant pandas. We can confirm that we will move pandas from the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee, US to Shanghai, China," FedEx responded to the Global Times over Ya Ya's journey. 

Video footage circulating online on Wednesday Beijing time showed that the panda house at the Memphis Zoo had been cleaned and staffers had put up banners with drawings of Ya Ya in the house.

The return of Ya Ya, as well as Le Le's carcass, soon became a hot topic on Chinese social media platforms. Related hashtags had been viewed more than 130 million times as of late Wednesday Beijing time. 

Some netizens volunteered to go to the Shanghai Pudong airport to welcome Ya Ya and Le Le. "I am sure there will be a crowd of people there for them! We all want to see them land in the motherland safely!" said a Weibo user.

Ya Ya, a female panda, was born in the Beijing Zoo in August 2000. In April 2003, as part of a cooperation program on the protection and research of giant pandas between China and the US, Ya Ya and Le Le, a male panda from the Shanghai Zoo, were flown to Memphis. 

Since the beginning of 2021, there have been continuous reports about the poor health conditions of Ya Ya and Le Le, with heart-wrenching photos surfacing online. After the death of Le Le in February, pictures of the emaciated Ya Ya caused a stronger impact on the Chinese public, leading many netizens to call for the early return of Ya Ya.

The Memphis Zoo has a relatively sound management system and operating procedures. Ya Ya was taken good care of when living in the zoo and she was also deeply loved by US people, Mao Ning noted. 

"The cooperation of protection and research of the giant panda promotes protection for the animal, public education as well as civilization exchanges. China is willing to continue to make contributions to protect endangered animals together with other partners, including the US," Mao noted.

Sun Quanhui, a scientist from the World Animal Protection organization, told the Global Times that, per Chinese regulations, animals from overseas have to be put under quarantine for about 30 days after arriving in China to check whether the animals carry any diseases or germs.

As to the body of Le Le, Sun deemed that Chinese scientists probably would do some pathological research on it to enhance the understanding of old giant pandas.