UMD LSBE Study-in-China 2009

Today for one of our activities we visited the zoo in Beijing. The highlight of the zoo for me was seeing the pandas. These pandas were used during the Olympic games in Beijing last year. Even though the adult pandas were sleeping and did not move much the young pandas were hilarious. The young pandas were playing right in front of the glass or eating bamboo. They also had bags you could lift to see how much a panda weighs when they were a new born, six months old, one year old, and two years old. The pandas were not the only exotic animal at the zoo. They had many different species of birds from all over the country. These birds were looked quite different than those in the states. Many of them had bright colored feathers and were very pheasant like from my perspective. Another highlight was seeing both orange and white tigers. These animals were magnificent beast that we were able to see up close. The one problem with the tigers and leopard was the cages they were in. These cages were dirty and no bigger than 20 by 20. The leopard seemed very agitated and was pacing in its cage. The conditions the animals lived in were poor in my mind in places. Other than the cages the lion and tiger pit were covered with bottles and trash which I assume were thrown in by spectators. I would say that the zoo here was very similar to ones I have visited in the states. The Beijing zoo had more variety of species and it was cool to see animals I would never see otherwise. The type of families at both zoos were also very similar with families bringing there young children. It was a cool experience, but I wish could have visited the aquarium we didn’t though because of the extra cost. For how exotic the other land animals are I am sure the marine wildlife would be just as interesting.