HongShan Zoo

The animals, sadly, were not the highlight of this visit. The beautiful mountain (more like a hill) setting was. The zoo is built into the side of a hill on the far end of the city, but is conveniently reached by the subway. Trees cover the hillside and there are a few nice lakes that provide a relaxing atmosphere. Despite being surrounded by natural scenery, the animals are kept in small cages with concrete floors, in most cases, rather than grass or dirt.

The layout was a bit similar to the Wildlife Sanctuary in Colorado, but the Sanctuary actually provides much more comfortable cages for the animals and room to roam. The wolf area had a walk-over bridge for guests to look down at the animals and their cage was one of the few with a more or less dirt/grass floor and some trees and bushes. But the tigers, leopards, and lions were all kept in dreary prison cells. The giraffes, at least, did have a larger grassy area.

The Chinese operate by a very different culture and this shows in their treatment/respect of animals. I had to bear in mind that cultural differences should not be judged because we really do grow up and live worlds apart. Their view of animal husbandry is different from mine and most Americans and I will leave it at that. There were small fences designed to keep the visitors back away from the cages, with signs posted in English and Chinese to stay behind those fences. Well, some of the locals didn't think twice about jumping over the fence to go right along the cage for a closer picture. What's worse, many felt that it was OK to throw small things like sticks or paper into the cage to get the animal's attention. I even saw one guy throw his cigarette butt into a tiger cage. They were also very noisy and made calling or barking noises sometimes to try and get the animal to look at them.

I was reminded of the tiger in CA who escaped, tracked down, and attacked the specific tourist who was harassing it at his compound. 1 point tiger, 0 points humans, and a major rallying call sounded to caged animals everywhere!

These looked like fun: parents get to lock their kid up in a clear orb, then float them out on a small pool of water. When the kid starts to stand up, the parents can jerk on a rope connected to the ball to unsettle the contents!