WASHINGTON D.C.: Once giant panda mother Mei Xiang and her cub Xiao Qi Ji got hold of the “cake,” made from frozen fruit juice, sweet potatoes, carrots and sugar cane, it was completely consumed in 15 minutes.

As the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC celebrated 50 years of its iconic panda exchange with the Chinese government, its most famous tenants ate their breakfast in front of adoring crowds.

Chinese ambassador Qin Gang, present at the celebration, praised the bears as “a symbol of the friendship” between the nations.

In addition to marking the 1972 agreement initiated by President Richard Nixon’s landmark visit to China, the celebration also highlighted the success of the global giant panda breeding program in bringing back the bears from the brink of extinction.

Due to Mei Xiang’s advanced age of 22 years and the fact that zoo staff performed an artificial insemination procedure under tight restrictions shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic shut the entire zoo, Xiao Qi Ji’s birth in August 2020 was lauded as a near miracle. Mei Xiang was the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the U.S.

“It was definitely a long-shot pregnancy,” said Bryan Amaral, the zoo’s senior curator for mammals.

Therefore, the now 20-month-old cub Xiao Qi Ji was given a name that translates as “little miracle,” and his birth in mid-pandemic sparked panda-mania, with viewership on the zoo’s panda-cam livestream surging by 1,200 percent.

“I know how passionate people are about pandas. I am not surprised by that passion at all,” Amaral said.

The zoo’s original panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were star attractions at the zoo for decades beginning in 1972, but panda pregnancies are famously difficult and none of their cubs survived.

Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in 2000. Their three cubs, Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei, were also bred by artificial insemination. Under terms of the zoo’s agreement with the Chinese government, all were transported to China at the age of 4.