WASHINGTON — It was time for a change in the nation's capital.
The old regime was fine — although whispers of "dysfunctional" and "cantankerous" dogged its final years — but sentiment can go just so far, and then you need new blood.
Welcome to Washington, Mei Xiang (pronounced may-SHONG) and Tian-Tian (t-YEN t-YEN), but know this: It's a tough town, where dynasties come and go in the wink of one of your huge panda eyes.
The black and white creatures — Mei Xiang, a 2-year-old female, and Tian-Tian, a 3-year-old male — arrived at the National Zoo on Wednesday, and zoo officials lost no time in comparing them favorably with Hsing-Hsing, mourned a mere year ago as an irreplaceable Beltway fixture.
"They'll be playful, rambunctious, they'll be climbing around," enthused spokesman Bob Hoage. "People forget that Hsing-Hsing had a lot of geriatric ailments in his final years."
Indeed, the ghost of Hsing-Hsing's less than perfect 20-year courtship with Ling-Ling already haunted expectations of the new duo.
Ling-Ling spent her first decade in captivity rejecting Hsing-Hsing's advances, and the next decade neglecting their five offspring into premature deaths.
No wonder that on Wednesday zoo officials seemed to cling to every sign of possible romance.
"They greeted each other!" exulted Hoage. "They sniffed each other! They touched!"
"They're eating nose to nose," said Benjamin Beck, associate zoo director.
A smooth 17-hour flight on a specially equipped FedEx jet dubbed "Panda One" and an easy landing led to a decision to allow them to lodge together immediately, instead of spending their first two nights in separate quarters as originally planned.
"We've been examining their feces for stress hormones," Beck said. "From a professional point of view, it's been a piece of cake."
Mating was just one expectation of the young pandas, who were munching on bamboo in happy oblivion of the career awaiting them.
"Tian-Tian and Mei Xiang are symbols of the international commitment to conservation as well as friendship between two countries," Beck said.
Panda One touched down at 3 p.m., and a special "Panda Team" unloaded the pair. Hydraulic lifts lowered specially designed cages to a waiting truck.
Three different routes — all of which were kept secret — were mapped out to navigate the pandas safely through Washington's rush-hour traffic.
The pandas will be at the National Zoo, an arm of the Smithsonian Institution, for at least 10 years. The Chinese government lent the pandas in exchange for a $10 million donation to promote panda conservation in China.
Only about 1,000 pandas remain in the wild, mostly in western and central China. Five other pandas live in U.S. zoos — two in Atlanta and three in San Diego.
On the Net: The National Zoo: natzoo.si.edu/
FedEx: www.fedex.com/pandas