The highlight of the Beijing Zoo is the pandas. The rest is full of highs and lows. Other members of the bear family have excellent enclosures, aside from the polar bear, but many of the touted animals simply aren’t there.
Unfortunately, my visit to the Chinese capital’s zoo fell on a holiday weekend. I am informed that the zoo is different on a non-holiday day, but in China when there’s a holiday countless hordes are out and about. This, I assume, is why the elephants were in their house instead of out in the yards and why the giraffes were in a yard very far from public reach.
People blatantly ignored the do-not-feed-the-animals signs right in front of them as they tossed carrots and lettuce to the hoof stock. I’m told this is not normal operation at the Beijing Zoo and that employees will correct any culprits on a normal day. However, on the holiday weekend I went there was no one policing this behavior.
I was most disappointed though by several of the exhibits being empty of their boasted animals. There were signs all over for American bison, but yet the American animals included only llamas. There’s a penguin house empty of penguins. There’s what I assume is a koala building that was also closed.
There is hope though. There is expansion of exhibits taking place. Hopefully, the rhinos will soon have a large, beautiful enclosure.
As I said though, the highlight is the panda house. These iconic Chinese bears have large paddocks with climbing apparatus and lots of bamboo. They have air conditioned spaces as well. There are many enclosures and several bears. If Beijing is your only stop in China, then the zoo is worth a visit just for these cute and cuddly symbols. If you can though, a trip to Chengdu will yield a much better experience with these fantastic creatures.
Perhaps I need a second visit to the Beijing Zoo on a non-holiday day. Then I can better judge it in a normal state of being and not a survival mode from the sea and mountain of people on a holiday.
