Two giant pandas from China arrive at the National Zoo

Well, nearly a year after the National Zoo said a tearful goodbye to its resident giant pandas, it welcomed two new bears today. The three-year-old pandas were greeted at the zoo gates by fans after a long flight over from China. NBC News senior correspondent Tom Costello stopped by the zoo to check out the place they'll call home for the next decade. Two, one, cheese. The giant pandas will begin their 10-year stay at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Part of a 20-year global breeding and conservation program that's helped move the species from endangered to vulnerable. We have accomplished so much. One of our jobs was to crack the code on giant panda reproduction. If you want to save a species, you have to make more of them. Already, excitement has been building for this new wave of pandamania. The ones that I come to see, I'm not a morning person, but I'll come as soon as the doors open when they're here. And when they come, we'll be back. For nearly a year, the popular panda exhibit, which draws close to two million visitors annually, has been without these cute black and white balls of fur. After the National Zoo sent home its last three pandas on China's request. I like that the pandas are coming back because I've missed the pandas. In preparation for its new residents, the zoo has been renovating its facilities to ensure a long-term and stable source of edible bamboo. With improvements like new climbing structures, rocks, hammocks, and pools. Everyone loves pandas, and people come from all over the world to see pandas. Baoli and Qingbao will be the first bears China has sent to Washington in 24 years. Baoli, the third generation in his family to live at the zoo. His grandparents came here in 2000. His mom was our only female cub born here at National Zoo. It was 1972 when the first pandas arrived after President Nixon's historic trip to China, establishing a diplomatic breakthrough. That loan agreement expired last year amid rising tensions and concerns over whether the pandas will ever return to American soil. NBC's Janice Mackey-Frayer in Beijing. China has a monopoly on pandas and uses the bears as a strategic tool to pursue a sort of literal soft power around the world. They're symbolic. So even though U.S.-China relations are strained, more pandas could be heading to the U.S. Now with this renewed pandaplomacy in action, Baoli and Qingbao are set to make their public debut in D.C. They're kind of a staple in Washington, D.C., I feel like. So we're excited to welcome them back home. Tom Costello, NBC News.