Shenzhen Sunday

Our last day in Shenzhen was a bit of a let down. Our plan was to hire a car and driver for 4 hours. We could load our luggage into the car, be driven to a park on the outskirts of town for a few hours, and then be dropped at the airport. Unfortunately, as helpful as the concierge tried to be, we could not find a driver for under 680 RMB - nearly $100 USD. We learned that the park had a left luggage area, and made the trip via 2 taxis for under 200 RMB instead.

The park we decided upon was the Shenzhen Safari Park. Not the safari park of my experience where you drive through fields where animals can live in relative aproximation of their natural habitat. Far from it, this was the classic Chinese abusive zoo. We saw trained dancing bears, dalmations pulling carts with human passengers, people separated from the animals by mere chain link fences, and plenty of animals being fed candy, chips and plastic bags through these thin fences. The treatment was appalling and I do not recommend anyone visit.

It seemed that the zookeepers bought their animals in bulk. We passed cages with the most peacocks I have ever seen, all crowded together and preening for each other. They looked quite the narcissistic bunch. There were loads of ostriches, all trying to peck at people's shoes. Dozens of tigers, thankfully viewed by a raised footbridge well above their pens. Interestingly, among the dozens of tigers was only 1 lion. They only had 1 panda as well, which they fed apples whenever someone wanted to take its picture. I suppose the entertainment came in smaller numbers, and it seems that the giant panda qualified as entertainment. We also only saw one dancing bear, one trained monkey, and one camel and elephant each prepared to give rides. Each of them looked miserable. Clearly no one had introduced the concept of animal rights to these zookeepers.



That said, we enjoyed the beautiful weather in the southwest of China on a lovely spring day. The close proximity to the animals kept both girls' attention, and the park was a wonderful place to wear out our girls so they both slept on the flight home. Altogether, Shenzhen turned out to be a wonderful weekend away.