Beijing Zoo: Wednesday, May 23rd

The Beijing Zoo was very interesting. It was not as bad as I was warned. My professor, who had been to the zoo 10 years before described a very sad situation of terrible care and gross cages. She told me about how the Chinese would give lit cigarettes to monkeys through the bars and get the monkeys addicted to cigarettes. When I went, it wasn’t that bad, but it was no St. Louis Zoo. The cages were still small and pathetic but it was a lot cleaner than I had expected. The trees were painted on the walls instead of real trees but at least the cages were surrounded by glass where no one could throw anything into it. The Chinese surprised me with how they treated the zoo animals. They yelled at the animals, banged on the glass and threw trash at he or she if it was an open sanctuary, like the tigers. You could tell that being polite to animals is not a part of their culture, like it is in the west. The Pandas were definitely the best part. They were in a small sanctuary and looked really bored but they sure were cute…