Exploring the Beijing Zoo

One of the things on my list to see in China was the Beijing Zoo. Before anyone gives me too much of a hard time about visiting a zoo in a different country, there’s a couple reasons I decided to visit the zoo. First, going to a zoo in a foreign country gives me a chance to see animals native to that country and reason two – it seemed like a good place to people watch and observe ordinary people hanging out. Also, the Beijing Zoo has multiple giant panda bears which are native to Sichuan province in China, but since I was not going to visit Sichuan province, this was the next best option.

It was a little bit rainy on the day I went to the zoo so as soon as I walked past the ticket checkers, I wanted to make a bee-line for the Panda bears. This was actually a good decision on my part as the panda bear area was covered from the rain. I saw 6 pandas on display at the zoo. Prior to my trip, I’d read how zoos from around the world are on waiting lists to be able to have the pandas at their zoos. It appears the Chinese are somewhat protective of the pandas. Walking around the Panda area, I can tell the Chinese are extremely proud of the panda bear being native to their country. This pride is not only true in how well the panda’s appear to be taken care of, but also by the amount of families taking pictures of their kids with the panda bears.

Another animal that is probably lesser known in the western world, but is also native to China is the golden snubbed nose monkey. These creatures are native to China mainly living in the mountain ranges in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Hubei. As you can see from the photo, the monkey’s name really requires no explanation, as they have a distinctive “snubbed” nose and there fur is colored a yellow/golden color. (Although I thought it looked more orange than anything else).

I walked around looking at other animals you’d find in other zoos like lions, tigers, giraffes, and elephants. One thing I noticed is that these “normal” animals did not seem as prized as the pandas and golden monkeys. Before you misjudge this statement, let me qualify this by saying that I don’t think any of the animals were starving, but I don’t think the same amount of resources were dedicated to the “normal” animals in terms of habitat recreation as it was to the pandas and golden monkeys. In some ways, I can understand this as the Chinese are very proud of the animals native to China especially the panda bears.

My visit to the Beijing Zoo was great. I’m glad that I went especially to see the panda bears. If you aren’t going to have time to make it to Sichuan province, then I highly recommend checking out the zoo. It’s a great activity for any traveler and can be done in a 2-3 hour visit. I invite you to check out the rest of my photos of the Beijing Zoo by visiting my Beijing Zoo Gallery.

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Tags: Beijing, China, Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 20th, 2009 at 9:13 pm and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.