The National Zoo’s three pandas have starting their long journey back to China. It’s not clear if, or when, we’ll see pandas again in D.C.

All three pandas will depart D.C. earlier than originally expected, heading back to China next month.

In less than two months, the giant pandas at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo will return to China. And with them goes one of the region’s biggest tourist draws.

“We’re going big because they’re going home,” says the Zoo.

If you love pandas, it’s a bittersweet time of year. All three of the Smithsonian’s pandas are scheduled to head to China at the end of the year.

For five decades, the pandas have provoked something like a widespread local frenzy, adored and cherished by residents who treat the bears as they might a revered celebrity.

The zoo has a slate of events planned in the coming weeks to mark 50 years of its giant panda program.

The female panda at the National Zoo is showing signs of impending estrus, the short window each year when she is ready to breed.

They’re now categorized as “vulnerable.”

The zoo will continue to pay $500,000 a year.