Beijing Zoo

20180821_103044_mmexport1534843842937Woke up really early, which is usual for me being on holiday despite being extra tired, and XR joined me with XJ for breakfast.

I was then able to rest for a short while before going to Beijing Zoo metro station to meet KY, who arrived shortly after I got the tickets.  There were so many people I was worried we would be queuing for ages.

I love the “ancient” Chinese style to the zoos in China, which have some traditional beautiful buildings and bridges.

My favourite part of the zoo had to be the waterfowl lake, with at least a couple of kinds of swans, geese, and several types of duck.  I think we both felt a bit sad that it seems all the birds’ wings are clipped to stop them from flying away; but perhaps it is understandable.

A couple of Shelducks:  Ruddy Shelduck and Common Shelduck (male).

 

Mute swan (the most common type of swan in the UK).

I believe these are Bewick’s Swans (here Wikipedia can help with the distinction from other types of similar swan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra_swan)

 

My other favourite animal was the panther, pacing around as cats do.

There were a few pandas, but they were all sleeping, as is usual for pandas, and it was difficult to see them through all the people.

This is probably the closest we got to properly seeing the pandas 😉

 

The downside to this zoo is that it does not seem very well maintained.  For example, most of the “cages” have glass sides that are really dirty.  This is rather a pity considering one main reason for a zoo is to let people see the animals!  The combination of dirt, reflections due to the bright sunlight, and the crowds of people made it very difficult to get any reasonable photos.  In one part (the nocturnal animals area) KY said that the place hadn’t changed in 30 years!

Zoo tickets are incredibly cheap in China.  I reckon they could raise the price slightly, and use the extra income to clean and maintain them better.  Even more so when compared with the additional entry ticket price of the aquarium inside the zoo.  Having said that, we didn’t go to the aquarium, mainly because I’m not interested enough in fish to pay that extra amount.

There were so many people squashed around some cages, I had to just hold the camera above their heads, point and shoot, without seeing what I was taking.

KY liked the tyre frog :)

All photos:

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