Beijing Zoo

      Today was supposed to be a cooler day than the past week, and it’s not a weekend, so lets go to the ZOO!   If you take the subway line 4 get off on Beijing Zoo exit B you will come up in a mall.  From the mall going up to the stairwells out ot the street there were vendors selling water, starchy corn, and umbrellas.  Now the boys finally got to see what used to be everywhere 5 years ago.
       I was totally prepared to buy 4 adult tickets because the kids are all over the height restriction.  But I was surprised when they gave me 3 kid tickets.  Great saved me some money.  We got the combo ticket of zoo plus panda adult 19.5 yuan, kids 9.5 yuan.  Ethan wanted to wait to see the panda.  I recall the option of being able to go back in the day to see the panda last time, but I could be wrong.  Now it’s a ticket, one time only if you leave that area.
          We saw the bird pond, so many different types of birds on an island, lots of swans and pelicans swimming in the water with ducks.  The orangutan was particularly pathetic, fat and in a small cage.  I recommended not seeing the elephant due to last time it was heart wrenching.  It took two passes before the pandas moved.  One of them was giving us a show walked around their cage and then sat pretty getting Oohs and aaah’s from the crowd.  Then we went to see the Polar Bear, also taking 2 passes for them to get moving.  One left to go to inside the other went swimming in the green algae water.  The kids were done, they saw what they wanted to see, we walked so much at the end of the day the kids said their feet hurt and we didn’t see everything.  The zoo maps are not precise and there are so many paths you may want to go one direction but end up somewhere else.  Or thinking you are leading from one section to another and you are off in another direction.  Several buildings have now closed too.  The buildings appear to have been shops, non-animal enclosure, etc.  We didn’t have time to go to the aquarium.  There is a string of shops that closed at 5, other stores at 5:30.  Not as much shopping as the Toledo Zoo, OH.
       For lunch we got cup-o-noodles.  Big steaming hot bowls on a hot day, we were already sweating, now we were swimming.  All around the zoo they have smoking spots and in the food seating area at every seat it says “No smoking” in English and Chinese and with the picture for those who don’t know how to read.  We found the guy who must’ve been blinded by his phone as he smoked between 2 non-smoking signs.  Then the rest of his party showed up who also started smoking, leaning against the signs to cover them.  The worker came over and pointed out the signs.
        For our drinks we tried a bubble tea place, we all tried a different flavor, kiwi with bursting bubbles, squash or melon we weren’t sure with bursting bubbles, strawberry cream shake and I got rose!  It had real rose petals in it, it was so yummy, even the kids thought mine was the best.