Guangzhou Zoological Garden , Chinese: 广州动物园
Picture of Guangzhou Zoological Garden
Natasha visited a zoo for the first time this afternoon. The Guangzhou Zoological Garden is one of the biggest zoos in China. Admission is 20 renminbi, and there are enough animals to keep you busy for an afternoon.
My worst fears about what I might find in a Chinese zoo weren't realized, but there were a few things I noticed that go beyond the usual criticisms leveled at zoos.
These include patron's blatant disregard for "Do not feed the animals" signs, litter in and around the cages, at least one rat running around the some of the bird exhibits, and animals on display tethered to very short chains.
Picture of Guangzhou Zoological Garden
A couple more noteworthy things that I wouldn't have expected were a three-legged jaguar and chicks being fed live to snakes.
On a lighter note, the insect exhibition didn't look much more interesting than what I find on my kitchen floor at midnight. And, I was treated like an exhibit by some of the visitors.
Natasha had a more positive impression of the zoo, particularly of the peacock. She didn't want to leave until we saw one of the colorful peacocks open his feathers. (She wasn't satisfied when we saw the white peafowl open his feathers.)
After we had waited several minutes several times and were heading out of the zoo, we heard a cheer by the peacock cage and saw from a distance the peacock strutting around with his feathers fully extended. Natasha sprinted back to the cage.
Unfortunately, we didn't have any photographs left. That memory will just have to remain in our heads.