Departure date set for Tai Shan

After four years, six months and four weeks as the National Zoo’s reigning prince of bears, Tai Shan, Washington’s beloved giant panda, will be leaving the place of his birth Feb. 4, Smithsonian Institution officials said Monday.

Nine weeks after the zoo announced that, according to a prior agreement with China, Tai Shan would be heading to that country to enter a breeding program, officials have worked out the complex details of his departure, route and exact destination.

Stay with the Post for more details.

-- Michael E. Ruane