Fruit juice, carrots, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane were used to make the massive frozen ‘cake.’
It lasted about 15 minutes and was appreciated by giant panda mom Mei Xiang and her kid Xiao Qi Ji.
Tian Tian, Xiao Qi Ji’s father, sat through the majority of the morning festivities, chewing bamboo in a neighboring enclosure.
His chomping audible during a statement by China’s ambassador to Washington, Qin Gang. The bears, according to Mr. Qin, are ‘a sign of friendship’ between the two countries.
Pandas are highly territorial by nature, and Tian Tian’s children would almost definitely never meet him in the wild. He was served a similar cake for lunch.
The celebration commemorated the 1972 agreement, which was triggered by US President Richard Nixon’s historic first visit to communist China as president.
Mr. Nixon visited China and met with Chairman Mao Zedong, a key step toward repairing relations between Washington and Beijing.
During the tour, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai donated two pandas to the American people, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, as a gesture of goodwill.
During the National Zoo event, the success of the global giant panda breeding program, which has helped brought the species back from the brink of extinction, was also highlighted.
‘Wonderful conservation outcomes may be reached through great collaborations with our Chinese counterparts,’ the pandas ‘symbolize.’ Brandie Smith, the National Zoo’s director, remarked.
‘To be able to introduce pandas to millions of people around the world for five decades and inspire them to worry about their protection, along with our scientific accomplishments, is a landmark well worth celebrating,’ she said.