Zoo

Yesterday I really wanted to go to the zoo, but my mom didn’t want to–we ended up going anyway, yay! First we went to the panda exhibit. The pandas were so cute, it looked like I could just go up and cuddle with one. One walked around, going this way and that, one slept in a really cute way on top of a jungle gym with its arms hanging down, and one ate in the corner of his cage. The pandas had nice big cages with large play areas including jungle gyms, slides, and platforms that go up and up.

Next we went to the big cat exhibit. The cats like lions, tigers, jaguars, black leopards, and more were so cute, but the enclosures they were in were so small that the cats could just barely move. Those were their indoor enclosures, but the outdoor enclosures that only had three or four animals in them had huge beautiful outdoor enclosures that actually looked like habitats. We also saw fox and wolves, birds of all kinds, elephants, hippos, and rhinos. I even got to ride an elephant (a statue of one that is). There was an aquarium that we didn’t go in and we also couldn’t find the monkeys, giraffs, or bears. Construction was probably blocking the entrance. Then my mom decided it was time to go.

We went to meet my dad at a park called Beihei and it was beautiful. They had food stands just opening because it was 5:00 and boat rentals just closing. We only had time to walk through it because my feet were getting tired from walking all day and I was getting hungry too. We will definitely go back and explore all the different houses and temples there. We also saw a woman taking her wedding pictures in a red dress.

We walked out of the park and started looking for a restaurant my dad read about in his guide book. Oh no! My parents never find anything from their guide book. But, for the first time we found the restaurant. We ordered a pork casserole called bairou because that’s what the restaurant is famous for. The restaurant has been there since 1741 and they have been serving bairou the whole time. We also got a small, whole, roasted chicken, and seasonal vegetables like tomatoes, yuck. The chicken was good and the pork and broth of the soup was good, but there was something green in the soup that didn’t taste so good. Once we finished dinner we got a cab home and ate some more of the birthday cake (icing for me). We went for a quick dip in the hotel pool and then we were all ready for sleep.

Today, we are thinking about going to the Summer Palace. It’s already getting late, so I have to go get ready to go out.

This entry was posted on 25. April 2008 at 21:36 and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.