Giant pandas are not only China’s cultural icons, but also the country's diplomatic ambassadors to the world.
Panda diplomacy dates back as far as the Tang Dynasty when Empress Wu Zetian, who ruled from 690 to 705, gifted a panda pair to the Japanese emperor as a goodwill gesture.
And today, such gestures continue.
China first gifted a pair of pandas to the former Soviet Union in 1957, and then in 1972 to the United States after President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to the country.
Today, China loans its giant pandas to many countries; the bears have traveled to Canada, France, Germany, and the UK, among others.
Once endangered, giant pandas are now listed as vulnerable in the International Union for Conservation of Nature list of threatened species. The latest census in 2014 found there were an estimated 1,864 giant pandas in the wild, a 17 percent increase in the last decade, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
