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       On Wednesday morning, Alex and Meghan Linden’s children woke up to a panda surprise.

       The family would be skipping school and flying from their hometown of St. Louis to Washington. National Zoo officials had said the facility’s pandas would be leaving for China by Nov. 15, and the Lindens wanted to see them just in time.

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       “Our daughter dressed up as a panda bear for Halloween,” Meghan Linden said of 6-year-old Harper.

       Unbeknownst to them, there would be another panda surprise that day.

       At the airport, the family saw the news: Mei Xiang, 25, Tian Tian, 26, and their 3-year-old son, Xiao Qi Ji, had just left the zoo for China, making D.C. panda-less for the first time in 23 years. The giant pandas were escorted out of the zoo in three large shipping crates, alongside about 220 pounds of bamboo for snacking en route. Zoo officials never divulged a specific date ahead of their departure, catching many panda fans off guard. By 12:50 p.m., the bears were up in the air.

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       A day before, Mei Xiang propped up against a tree while eating breakfast, wiping morning dew off bamboo leaves. Xiao Qi Ji and Tian Tian lay on the outskirts of their enclosure and played with zoo staff. Panda lovers ambled outside the panda area and watched the famous trio, taking photos and laughing at the bears’ antics — unaware that this would be the pandas’ last full day in D.C.

       On Thursday, Harper stood by an area overlooking their bare enclosure. She glanced at a sign that said the pandas are no longer in the country and sobbed in her mother’s arms.

       Their disappointment reflects a heartbreak felt by many people in D.C. and across the country. The three pandas were among eight that had lived at the zoo since 1972, when, following a visit from President Richard M. Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon to China, Premier Zhou Enlai gave the United States two 18-month-old pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing.

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       Over the weekend, hundreds of zoogoers with more fortunate timing than the Lindens stood in a line outside the panda house that stretched all the way to near the zoo’s entrance to bid the animals a final farewell.

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       It is not clear when, or if, the zoo will get giant pandas again. The zoo in San Diego sent its giant pandas to China in 2019; they have not been replaced. But National Zoo Director Brandie Smith said Wednesday she was hopeful that pandas would return.

       “I am an optimist,” she said. “When you work with giant pandas, you have to be an optimist.”

       Sharon Johnson and Maxine Blank of Gaithersburg, Md., came to the zoo Thursday to mourn the bears’ departure. Johnson, who has a panda tattoo on her left arm, remembers seeing Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing when they first came to Washington. As she walked past the blocked-off panda area, she cupped her eyes and said, “I can’t look.”

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       “I thought it would help a little, though I think it makes me even sadder,” she said.

       Mary Alice Adelberg of Falls Church, Va., took the day off work Thursday so she could see the pandas. A few hours after she and her husband purchased a parking pass Wednesday, they learned the pandas had left. The two decided to come to the zoo anyway.

       “I’ve lived here for 15 years and didn’t see them,” Adelberg said. “I thought we had more time.”

       Frances Nguyen, who met her husband at the panda enclosure, stood in the open area overlooking the pandas’ former habitat. She took pictures of the desolate area before heading to the zoo’s Great Ape House. She watched as children hugged and climbed atop a panda statue, posing for pictures with the sculpture in lieu of the real thing.

       Nguyen said she knew this day was coming. When she feels sad, she tells herself to imagine the picturesque mountains outside Chengdu, China, the city where her favorite creatures’ plane landed Thursday.

       Still, she said their departure was devastating.

       “I’ve never felt a loss quite like this,” she said. “It’s hard to talk about it with people who don’t understand.”

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