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The long-awaited return journey of female giant panda Ya Ya, who has lived in the Memphis Zoo in the US state of Tennessee for 20 years, finally started on Wednesday local time, according to media reports. The news resulted in heated cheers of Chinese netizens as they had been closely watching and looking forward to Ya Ya’s return for months over concerns about the giant panda’s health.

Ya Ya had left the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee, the US, starting her journey back to China on Wednesday morning, the Xinhua News Agency reported. When asked about the latest progress on Ya Ya’s return journey, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at the Wednesday press conference that Ya Ya would soon return to China as arranged. “Related parties in China and the US are actively promoting related preparations and arrangements,” Mao said.

According to information released by Chinese flight tracking platform Feichangzhun, FedEx special flight FX9759 would take off at 12:05 p. m. on Wednesday US time from the Memphis airport for the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The flight duration is estimated to be nearly 16 hours. Many netizens volunteered to go to the Shanghai Pudong Airport to welcome Ya Ya and Le Le. “I am sure there will be a crowd of people there for them! We all want to see them land in the motherland safely!” said a Weibo user.

Ya Ya was born in the Beijing Zoo in August 2000. In April 2003, as part of a cooperation program on the protection and research of giant pandas between China and the US, Ya Ya and Le Le, a male panda from the Shanghai Zoo, were flown to Memphis.

Since the beginning of 2021, there have been continuous reports about the poor health conditions of Ya Ya and Le Le, with heart-wrenching photos surfacing online. After passing away of Le Le in February, pictures of the weak Ya Ya caused a stronger impact on the Chinese social media, leading many netizens to call for the early return of Ya Ya.