September 15, 2025
WASHINGTON – A lively crowd gathered at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, DC, on Friday to celebrate Qing Bao’s fourth birthday. The female giant panda, who arrived from China last October, celebrated her first birthday at the zoo with a fun-filled event, drawing visitors from around the world.
Staff set the scene with honey-smeared “gift boxes” filled with sweet potatoes, scattered carrots, and playful balls for Qing Bao.
The highlight was a fruit-and-ice cake, featuring a large “4” and ice heart, brought in by keepers.
When Qing Bao entered, she first showed interest in the carrots and played with a ball before the cake drew her attention. Her first bite was met with a chorus of “Happy Birthday” from the crowd. After enjoying the treats, she climbed a tree to rest, drawing “awws” and smiles from the audience.
In recent weeks, Qing Bao showed signs of pseudopregnancy, a condition where female pandas exhibit pregnancy-like symptoms, such as sleeping more and being sensitive to noise, despite not being pregnant. According to the zoo, keepers kept a close eye on her during the celebrations.
Bao Li, Qing Bao’s male companion, celebrated his fourth birthday on Aug 4, also enjoying a colorful frozen fruit cake. “It was fun watching her soon-to-be mate have his birthday a few weeks ago when he turned four. And now she’s four,” said longtime zoo visitor Craig Salvas to China Daily.
Visitors shared touching stories of how pandas have become a part of their lives, igniting joy and forging connections. Panda enthusiast Stephanie Smith expressed her heartfelt affection for Qing Bao. “We love you so much,” she proclaimed, recalling meeting Qing Bao’s father as a cub and Tai Shan, the cub of former zoo panda residents Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, in Dujiangyan, China. Tai Shan was born in 2005 and returned to China in 2010.
“You’ve made my life so special. You make all of our lives special … and I can’t say thank you enough,” said Smith, offering blessings to Qing Bao and other pandas.
Sanpetch, a software developer who accompanied his wife, brought a professional camera to capture the moment. He said they visited Qing Bao earlier this year in March and April, returning for her birthday. “They’re just lovely animals. Wonderful,” Sanpetch said. “Happy birthday. She looks wonderful.”
Craig Salvas has a decades-long bond with the zoo’s pandas. “I have been coming here since the first pandas came to this zoo in 1973, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, and watched them grow up, grow old here,” he said. “And then when Mei Xiang and Tian Tian came in 2000, watched them grow up and have four babies: Tai Shan, Bao Bao, Bei Bei and Xiao Qi Ji.”
The older three cubs returned to China for breeding programs, while Xiao Qi Ji left with his parents in 2023 when their agreement expired. “And then when they left with Xiao Qi Ji, then Qing Bao and Bao Li came here. So now we have those two pandas, and hopefully they’ll have babies in a little while, and we’ll watch them grow up,” he said.
Salvas has been photographing animals for zoo outreach and fundraising events. “Pandas are beautiful animals. I actually love all the animals here at the zoo.” He said he also visited pandas at the Beijing Zoo, “people are nice to us”, as well as in Toronto, Atlanta and San Diego.
On his impression of China, Salvas said, “We’ve actually met several people from China over the years who’ve come here, either as part of the team of people that care for pandas back at Wolong, where our pandas are from, and even some people from Chengdu who’ve come here. But I’ve met more Chengdu people at Zoo Atlanta because their pandas were Chengdu pandas.”
“We’ve all become friends with each other,” he said.
Rachel Widener, who drove from Philadelphia, wore panda-themed attire. “I’m here to say happy birthday to Qing Bao,” she said.
She also mentioned that Xiao Qi Ji’s birth during COVID offered solace. “It really gave a lot of people, including myself, something to cling on to for hope and happiness, watching the pandas grow up together with love and happiness. It’s been really nice.”
“It’s been great to come and visit them again. And of course, I was going to be here for the first birthday party,” Widener added. She hopes to visit China someday. “Absolutely. Pandas. Yes.”
Bao Li and Qing Bao arrived in Washington under a new 10-year agreement last October, debuting publicly on Jan 24, 2025. The zoo’s panda program began in 1972 with Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, and last year marked the 50th anniversary of the program with special Pandaversary events. Other pandas living in the US include Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, who arrived in San Diego on June 27, 2024, and debuted on Aug 8.
The zoo’s nutrition team, working in a kitchen-like commissary, prepared Qing Bao’s cake over three weeks. Senior nutritionist Mike Maslanka explained to China Daily several days before the party: “It’s set up very much like a restaurant kitchen where food service, sanitation is very important to us, ingredient quality is very important to us, and assembling diets very accurately is important.”
“Giant pandas are obligate for nutrients, but the nutrient profile that they need is delivered in, typically, a single item. And that single item is bamboo,” said Maslanka. Bamboo, harvested from partner sites and stored fresh, dominates their diet. Other foods like butternut squash, preferred by Qing Bao and Bao Li, add variety.
Brittney Hudgens crafted the cake. “Predominantly, it is ice. However, we have mixed in some juices, like pineapple juice and a little bit of apple juice,” she said. It included carrots for Qing Bao’s preference, following a “candy or sweets” theme.
Maslanka, after a working trip to Chengdu, China, in July, said: “It was us sharing information, and our colleagues from China sharing information with us. So, it was very fruitful.”