Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Zoo Day

Day three sees me extend my stay in Beijing until the 18th Jan so that I can celebrate my birthday with friends :)
Then it is off to the zoo with an American room mate - it is a 2y subway ride away and houses some Giant Pandas in their own purpose built, Olympic sponsored enclosure… It is well organised and at the great expense of £1.50p we head into the quiet zoo… The Pandas have their own space which is heated and has lots of bamboo - the charming creatures waddle about within their enclosures and play with the bamboo while they eat it and at one point two of the younger pandas decide to have a little tussle ending in them making friends and rolling about in the bamboo :)
There are other exhibits here and the collection of animals is impressive even if the cages at times do not give them as much space as you would like to see. The lions and tigers are particularly impressive in their indoor cages. You can get within 5’ of them and while we where there some of the lions began roaring - some instinctive part of me, some primeval part started flooding my system with endorphins as I could feel the fight or flight response kicking in… Fear… real FEAR rolled through you as the roaring went on and the lion looked right at you!! I could feel it!! Wow… I was so pleased that it was behind a cage and no amount of super woofa TV viewing of nature documentaries can make up in any way for the real thing 5’ away… Try it and feel the unease kick in…
Less disturbing exhibits included the playful monkeys (one with a blue face), the ambling bears (the moon bear was dancing for sausage snacks), staring nocturnal mammals and finally the majestic wolves. The zoo is well worth the entry fee for the Pandas alone but try and get round all the exhibits as it is worth the effort - but it is icily cold! (Better than the crowds of summer though)…
Final stop today was to have a meal of ‘Peking Duck’ at a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet (who were out on location and price! It was 128y not 88y, but that’s inflation for you) Anyhow - the duck was mouth-wateringly good with crisp yet juicy skin covering dark and tender meat which you wrapped up with onion, sauce and cucumber to make a delicious and filling meal. Highly recommended.

No comments:

Post a Comment