WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Zoo’s long dark panda drought is coming to an end. Eleven months after the zoo sent its three wildly popular pandas — Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji — back to China, a new pair of bears is set to arrive. A pair of three-year old giant pandas, named Bao Li and Qing Bao, have left a research facility in the southwestern Chinese city of Dujiangyan and will be flown to Washington, according to a statement by the China Wildlife Conservation Association. Pandas have become one of the unofficial symbols of the nation’s capital, dating back to 1972 when Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing were sent as a gift from China following President Richard Nixon’s historic diplomatic visit there.… Continue Reading