Big Capital, Small Pleasures

Beijing is an impossible mix of an Imperial and a Communist city; both styles share a taste for huge administrative buildings, despite the slight difference in the ornaments used by each. If you combine that taste with the fact that both regimes controlled vast areas of the planet, the result is a plethora of ‘must-see’ blocks of cement, stone and wood. You may spend a long period of time exploring them and still miss the main treat of the town: its people and their culture. My idea of exploring the place is to begin with the ‘unimportant’ things: visit the Dashalan Market, eat some local food, explore some Hutongs, learn some Chinese Characters while trying to find an address and try to get the tones right while asking ‘I want to hire a bicycle’ (in my case I was understood as ‘I want to wash my face’). Then, after you start feeling as a local, if you have some spare time, dedicate it to the monuments’ exploration.

Quick Tips:

Don't be afraid of the huge language difference. Learning Chinese-characters describing the basic directions and the numbers is easy and it will allow you to move freely and confidently around the city. As well almost any person will be happy to practice English; getting help from the friendly locals is easy and safe. Bring with you clothes fit for several climates, the changes can be surprisingly fast. The local food is not what we are used to see in Western-Chinese restaurants, taste it with care at the beginning – especially street food which may upset your stomach. While visiting top rated attractions – especially those bringing also Chinese tourists – avoid peak hours, try to get there early in the morning or late in the afternoon; it will be hard to convince anyone that that photo showing ten thousand Chinese was taken in the Forbidden Palace.

Best Way To Get Around:

The metro is the best way to move around: it is safe, fast and cheap, but unfortunately it doesn't reach huge sections of the city. To get to the outer quarters you may combine a metro trip with a local bus. The bus’ stops are well marked, but sometimes they are split into several stops along a block, due to the big number of buses stopping there; don’t give up and read the signs with patience. Lines aiming to the city outskirts may leave only after they have a suitable amount of passengers – the bus will start moving as soon as it is almost full, bring with you good reading material. Taxis are expensive, but if you have arrived to one of the outer train stations at 5am, they are the best way to avoid a long, cold and lonely way to the centre.

More than a meal, a Beijing Duck is a symbol. A symbol of a far gone imperial era. A symbol of dishes designed to symbolize status. A symbol of institutionalized discrimination. A symbol of yet another futile attempt to reach an inexistent perfection. This is what makes a Beijing Duck an essential part of any visit to the Middle Kingdom’s Northern Capital. Experiencing the symbol doesn’t mean accepting the ideas represented by it; doing that only adds another layer – culinary in this case – to our capability to understand the culture that created it.

Moreover, after a morning visit to the nearby Purple Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, stopping for a dish which had been eaten by the emperor seems suitable.

Approaching such a meal without proper preparation is almost a sin; otherwise the details surrounding the preparation and serving of the dish would go unnoticed. Duck is a popular meat in Asia; the Imperial version differs from the myriad dishes served in countless markets only in these details.

Quanjude

The Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant is recommended for its superb location near the city’s main sights and the establishment’s long history. More important, the dish is prepared in front of the customer and thus the little secrets are exposed.

History

Beijing Duck was first prepared for the emperor in the Yuan Dynasty and was mentioned in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages manual by Hu Sihui, an imperial kitchen inspector in 1330. During the Ming Dynasty, Beijing Duck was a main dish on the imperial menus. The Quanjude Restaurant was opened in 1864.

Maltose Lacquered

Newborn ducks are allowed to grow in a free environment for their first forty-five days and afterwards force-fed four times a day for the next twenty days.

After having been slaughtered and cleaned, air is pumped under the skin through the neck to separate the skin from the fat, and then the duck is soaked in boiling water for a short period of time before it is hung up to dry. The duck is then lacquered with maltose syrup, and the innards are rinsed once more with water; after being left like that for twenty-four hours, the duck is ready to be cooked.

Once at the restaurant, the duck is roasted on an open fire in front of the customer’s eyes. The fire is made out of fruit-wood; a process which gives some of the wood fruity aroma to the meat and creates the characteristically crispy skin the dish is so prized for.

After being cooked, the duck is sliced in front of the diners; the cutting process is an art, each chunk contains skin, fat and meat, but no bones. The duck is very fat and the skin, although skillfully treated, adds even more fat to the mix, but the meat, as always with duck, is excellent and allows tasting the different ingredients and steps of the cooking process.

Alternative Serving

An alternative way of serving it separates the duck into parts. The skin is served first dipped in sugar and garlic sauce. Then, the meat is then served with steamed pancakes, scallions, vegetables and sweet sauce. The diner spreads then the sweet sauce over the pancake, adds meat and vegetables, and wraps it before taking a sweet bite of it. The remaining parts are served in a broth.

My main concern while planning the visit to Beijing’s Purple Forbidden City was getting trapped amidst a million visitors and unable to enjoy the place. The planned strategy was simple; arriving early in the morning and then rushing to the main sights, while keeping those next to the entrance for the end. This seemed to be an infallible plan.

Next day I bought a ticket and run into the forbidden grounds. I crossed a typical Chinese gate and saw another one ahead of me; "First the palace," I told myself and run through the second gate. And through the third one. At the fifth one I became worried but kept pushing forward; funky designed gates could not stop me now. Having reached the Imperial Garden at the northern edge of the compound, I finally got the message: the Purple Forbidden City was designed a series of gates with nothing that could be defined as a European style palace at the compound’s center.

I retraced my steps and entered the - back then still open – Starbucks at the compound. What was the playground of ruthless emperors had become a theme park for all people; and they deserve a decent coffee break while they study the travel guide. Yet it was weird on the limit of kinky to sit drinking an Italian cappuccino while facing the rocky courtyard - maybe the concubines preferred spot in the palace - of what was the ruling heart of one of the great empires.

Name

The Purple Forbidden City is called Zi Jin Cheng in Chinese or Dabkuri Dorgi Hoton, the "Layered Inner City," in Manchu. The "purple" part of the name – Zi - refers to the North Star, which was the throne of the celestial emperor.

History

Built from 1406 to 1420 at the very center of Beijing, the Purple Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty and Imperial China in 1912. It was the Emperor’s home as well as China’s ceremonial and political centre.

The Forbidden City first run as a capital was during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. However, during the Ming Dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor moved the capital to Nanjing (literally South Capital). His son, the Yongle Emperor returned the capital to the north and began constructing the existing version of the city in 1406 with the help of more than a million workers and precious materials brought from all over China.

The emperors sat there until Puyi abdicated in 1912. The compound was conquered twice during this long period, once in 1860, during the Second Anglo-Chinese Opium War and afterwards in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion when soldiers from the international relief force looted it. Puyi was evicted from the inner court only in 1924, when the compound became a museum.

The Forbidden City faced danger again in 1933 during the Japanese invasion and later during the Cultural Revolution, when Premier Zhou Enlai ordered its protection.

Since 1924 it has been transformed into the Palace Museum; part of its collection of imperial artifacts was taken to Taipei where it is displayed at the National Palace Museum. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Access

The city is nowadays accessed through the Tiananmen Gate, on the northern side of the square with the same name, which also nowadays is the political center of China. The "Gate of Heavenly Peace" was originally built in 1420 as a replica of a gate in Nanjing (the Southern Capital) and got its final shape and name in 1651.

Design

The compound was arranged according to three north-to-south axes; the main structures – like the emperor’s quarters – are on the central one. During the Qing Dynasty, the Palace of Earthly Harmony became a place of Manchu Shamanist and Tibetan Buddha - or Lamaism - ceremonies, while the native Taoist religion continued to have an important role; the religious structures within the temple reflect this complex reality.

The Outer and Inner courts’ main halls of are arranged in groups of three — representing Heaven through the shape of the Qian trigram, while the Inner Court residences are arranged in groups of six — representing the Earth through the shape of the Kun trigram.

Main Structures

The complex covers 720000 square meters and includes 980 buildings with 8707 rooms built on a rectangle spanning almost a kilometer from north to south and three-quarters of that from east to west. The city is surrounded by a slanted brick-covered wall of almost eight-meter height and a moat; four towers displaying an intricate design sit at the corners. Four gates face each compass direction, the southern one – the main entry – is called the Meridian Gate, the northern one is the Divine Might Gate and the east and west ones are called East Glorious Gate and West Glorious Gate. The Meridian Gate has five gateways; the central one being reserved for the emperor’s use.

After crossing the main gate, the traveler reaches a large square and the Inner Golden Water River that is crossed by five bridges. Across it are the Gate of Supreme Harmony and the Hall of Supreme Harmony Square. A three-tiered white marble platform rises from it and three halls – the main ones in the city compound - stand on top of it; in order of apparition they are the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, and the Hall of Preserving Harmony.

The three structures feature rather unimpressive imperial thrones. The first rises thirty meters above the square and is the largest; it was the ceremonial centre of the empire. The second one is a square hall used by the Emperor to prepare himself before and during ceremonies. The third was used for training and the final stage of the Imperial examination. Eats and west of these buildings – known as Outer Court – are buildings used for the reception of political leaders and the crown prince quarters.

An oblong courtyard separates these structures from the Inner Court, where the emperor’s residence was in another set of three halls, namely the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union, and the Palace of Earthly Tranquility. The first was the emperor’s quarters, the third was the empress ones and the central hall was used for their encounters. Above the emperor’s throne, there was a tablet reading "Justice and Honor." The most astounding part of these structures is their relative smallness and lack of facilities; most modern three stars hotels are by far more comfortable. Westwards, the emperor has another quarter called the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Other surrounding structures were used for the concubines and children. Behind the central structures and before the northern gate lies the Imperial Garden that displays many interesting designs, mainly of rocks and still nature.

Collected Works

The Palace Museum collections included 1.17 million items in 1925; however, from 1933 many items were sent to Taiwan and Nanjing, where many items still are. The collection includes ceramics, paintings, bronzeware, jade, different artifacts and clocks. The last item is especially interesting; the museum owns more than a thousand clocks, one of the world’s largest collections of 18th and 19th centuries timepieces from China and elsewhere.

Surrounding Structures

The Forbidden City is surrounded on three sides by imperial gardens; Jingshan Park to the north, Zhongnanhai to the west – where nowadays are the Communist Party Headquarters – and the Beihai Park to the northwest, where the Chinese State Council is located. Tiananmen Square to the south hosts many of the most important structures in Beijing, see that entry in this journal for additional details.

Tiananmen Square is the large plaza named after the gate at its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. The square includes several important structures, among them the Great Hall of the People (or National Legislature), the National Museum of China, the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Mao Zedong Mausoleum.

It has great cultural significance as a symbol because it was the site of several key events in Chinese history, the most important among them being the 1989 violent protests when at least hundreds of unarmed democracy-activists were massacred by the People's Liberation Army on the orders of Deng Xiaoping.

Name

Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng means the Heavenly Peace Gate and is the southern gate of the Purple Forbidden City; it gave the name to the square south of it.

Between Two Gates

The modern version of the square lies between two gates: the Tiananmen to the north – separating the square from the Purple Forbidden City - and the Zhengyangmen, or Qianmen (Front Gate), to the south. The square is 880 meters north to south and 500 meters east to west, making it the largest square in the world. Chang'an Avenue separates the Tiananmen Gate from the Square and is a popular site for military parades.

Security

Even when compared with other locations in China, Tiananmen Square is a heavily guarded site with uniformed and plainclothes policemen watching closely over the place. A favorite tactic of them is a type of entrapment in which undercover agents approach innocent visitors and make all kind of illegal propositions. Ignoring them is the best tactic.

History

The square was built in parallel to the Purple Forbidden City, from 1417 onwards; in 1699 it was renovated and got its modern shape and name. During most of the Qing Dinasty, the area was filled with government ministries; however, those where heavily damaged during the Boxer Rebellion. Afterwards, the area became the modern Tiananmen Square.

Several events of recent history were centered on the square. In 1919, the May Fourth Movement was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement that marked the upsurge of Chinese nationalism; it grew out of dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles settlement, known here as the Shandong Problem. The birth of the Communist Party of China is usually linked to this event. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed here by Mao Zedong. During the Cultural Revolution it was the site of mass rallies and it is the common site of military parades commemorating National Days.

On April 5, 1976, the Tiananmen Incident took place here. It was a protest against the repression of the Chinese regime nearing the end of the Cultural Revolution and followed the death of Zhou Enlai.

On 1989, took part protests led by labor activists, students, and intellectuals protesting against the Communist Party corruption from April 15 until June 4. The brutal military crackdown caused at least 200 deaths (official PRC government), but probably closer to 3000 (official figure of the Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross) on the square itself and an unknown number of death in subsequent purges lead by the party.

On January 23, 2001 seven people attempted to set themselves on fire on the eve of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese authorities claimed they were Falun Gong followers, despite the cult forbidding such actions.

Mao Zedong Mausoleum

Roughly at the square’s center is the Mao Zedong Mausoleum, a huge building displaying Mao Zedong mummified body. A long line of people usually waits at its entrance; guards check up belongings for hidden – and forbidden – cameras.

The small body is kept behind a transparent glass wall and within a heavily heated hall. Interestingly, Ho Chi Minh’s body in Hanoi is kept in a similar – but heavily refrigerated - hall.

The modern cement box sits atop what once was the Great Ming Gate – or the Gate of China – a ceremonial gate, which was closed unless the emperor used it for official ceremonies. During the 1950’s, the gate was demolished – together with the Chessgrid Streets – and the square acquired its actual dimensions.

Monument to the People's Heroes

The Monument to the People's Heroes is a ten-story obelisk north of Mao Zedong's mausoleum on the southern edge of the square. It was erected as a national monument in memory of the martyrs who laid down their lives for the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people during the 19th and 20th centuries. On its base are eight huge white marble bas-relieves covering different revolutionary episodes, from the First Opium War in 1840 to the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.

Great Hall of the People

At the western edge of Tiananmen Square is the Great Hall of the People. It is China’s parliament, and it used also for ceremonial government and party activities. It was built in 1959 as one of the "Ten Great Constructions" designed to celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the People's Republic.

National Museum of China

The National Museum of China is on the eastern edge of Tiananmen Square. It was formed in 2003 out of two separate museums that had already occupied the building, the Museum of the Chinese Revolution and the National Museum of Chinese History. The structure was another one of the "Ten Great Constructions" designed to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the People's Republic.

The Museum of Chinese History covers Chinese history from the prehistoric Yuanmou Man to the end of the Qing Dynasty - the last imperial dynasty and is divided into three collections: Primitive Society (until 4000BC), the Slavery Society (2100 - 475 BC), and the Feudal Society (475 BCE - 1911).

The Old Democratic Revolution (1840-1911), the New Democratic Revolution (1911-1949) (including the History of the Republic of China), and the "Triumph of the Revolution and the Establishment of Socialism" covering the events since 1949, are displayed at The Museum of the Chinese Revolution.

A dream of years, my visit to the Great Wall posed a huge obstacle: Is it possible to take a clean photograph of the colossus? Would millions of visitors step aside while I laboriously aim my camera? I had no illusions.

As explained elsewhere, the visit to the Wall became a literally turning point during my first visit to the Middle Kingdom. Having spent most of my life in warm climates, I pay little attention to temperatures. Yet, in Badaling, I stood atop the colossus with a fierce wind – almost a hurricane in my private definition - and suffered temperatures of -10°C during a cold January. I was forced to recognize the existence of really cold weather; but I was rewarded with clear sights – no other humans were nearby.

As with everything else in life, and especially in China, the important "T" while visiting Badaling is the "T" of "Timing."

Badaling

Badaling is known also as the Juyongguan Pass r the North Pass; it was the last defense before Imperial Beijing. The section is made of stone and bricks from the nearby hills; it is 7.8 meters high and six meters wide. Originally it could hold five horsemen riding abreast.

Location

Being a spot close to Beijing – abut seventy kilometers from it - Badaling is the best maintained and restored part of the wall, but also the most visited one.

Getting there

The best way to arrive there independently is taking the metro till Jishuitan Station and from there to continue by bus. The bus station is not exactly at the exit from the metro, since there are several bus stations there, each serving a bus or two. Bus 91 is the last one from the metro exit, of course. The price is 10Y and the bus leaves only when full; the way takes about one hour.

Practicalities

The entrance costs forty Yuan. Before the entrance there is a cluster of souvenirs’ shops and restaurants. Souvenirs – including Wall pictures carved on stone - are sold along the wall as well.

Length

About 6700 kilometers are spanned by the Wall from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. Most of the ancient walls have eroded away over the centuries, and very few sections remain today.

Rationale

Traditionally, people in East Asia migrated from north to south. New Chinese Dynasties emerged from the north; eventually, Han Chinese people pushed all other ethnic groups southwards – for example as it happened with the Thais and Dais. Thus, every new dynasty considered repairing and improving the Wall a vital priority.

Restoration

The Badaling section of the wall was restored in 1957 with the addition of guard rails. It runs for several kilometers after which are the un-restored sections, but the restoration took place for as long as the eye can see, thus the traveler has the illusion of seeing the wall at its full splendor.

Watchtowers

Communication between the army units along the length of the Great Wall was done through signal towers placed upon hills; several of those can be seen near Badaling.

History

The Great Wall of China is called Chángchéng in Mandarin – literally meaning the "Long Wall." This fortification was constructed several times between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the Chinese Empire northern border from the Mongols, the Jurchen and the Xiongnu.

Most of the current wall was built during the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century. During certain periods in history, more than a million soldiers stop atop it and guarded China, while the number of men that died during its construction is estimated to be up to three million.

A New Type of Troy

Around 1600AC, the Manchu invasions began, but the Ming army held off the Manchus at the heavily fortified Shanhaiguan Pass for many years.

However, the Manchus crossed the Great Wall in 1644, when the Shanhaiguan Gates opened by Wu Sangui, a Ming general who disliked the Shun Dynasty.

The Manchus seized Beijing, and established the Qing Dynasty, the last ever dynasty that held until 1912. The Manchus annexed Mongolia and Manchuria, extending the empire borders beyond the Wall; thus, its repairs and construction were discontinued until modern tourists defined a new reality.

Reward

During my visit, I got clear sights of the wall running for kilometers, tracing the steep hills borderline without a soul in sight. The place displayed a weird beauty: the entrance is at the bottom of a narrow valley among steep hills and from there the wall climbs on both sides dividing the barren hills at what seems like a random line.

Standing there it is hard to avoid the thought that even if the wall was taken away, crossing the rugged terrain while riding a horse would be impossible even for an actor in a Jackie Chang movie. Thus, as all slaves-built big enterprises of crazed despotic leaders, it is useless. Exactly that characteristic transforms it into a beautiful sight, a work of art in an open air museum.

Medieval China is gone. The picture we all have in mind of narrow alleys packed up with ambulant sellers, traditional medicine shops and a strong smell of incense and spice covering any other foul smell belongs to a far gone past.

However, a few niches still exist in which modern versions of those quasi-mythical markets can still be visited; the rest is up to our imagination. Dashalan Lane in Beijing is such a place.

Location

Dashalan Lane enjoys a superb location near the Purple Forbidden City. The market is a Hutong traditional neighborhood/market running for a few hundred meters to the west from the top end of Qianmen Gate, on the southern edge of Tiananmen Square. Hutong is the name for narrow alleys in Beijing filled up with Siheyuan, the traditional Chinese courtyard residence. Many times these doubled as shop-houses, like in Dashalan Lane and created colorful markets.

History

The market’s location is not casual: in imperial times, shops and theatres were not permitted within the imperial city; Dashalan Lane was just outside the gates, serving thus the shopping needs of the population within the imperial city.

Timing

After beginning the day at the Purple Forbidden City and continuing through Tiananmen Square to Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck and having an imperial Beijing Duck for lunch, Dashalan Lane is the perfect place for ending such a packed day in a lighter tone.

Fame

Dashalan Lane various shops are a favorite theme of the documentaries shown on CCTV9, the Chinese English television channel of the Chinese broadcasting authority. The network dedicates the first half of any hour to news and the second half to interesting documentary films. Many of those are dedicated to the stories of single shops – or families – spanning several centuries and those enrich the whole experience of visiting such a market.

Favorite Shops

The whole place is more a sight than a shopping place, an endless jumble of silk shops, department stores, herbal medicine, food, jade, musical instruments, pottery stores, second hand shops, lace, theatres, tailors and some very old and charming Chinese architecture.

Some of the still active shops date back to the 17th century, and there is a medieval flavor to the whole street, mainly due to the specialized shops selling single and unique products and the pedestrian crowds congesting the whole place.

One of the most interesting shop is Liubiju (at 3, Liangshidian Jie), a shop that for the last four centuries has been selling pickles-and sauce; it offers a golden opportunity to enrich the culinary experience with classic Chinese flavors. Nearby is a restaurant called Zhimielou, which serves Imperial Snacks that are extremely suitable for a lazy afternoon.

A bit west of there, on the right side, is the Liufuxiang Alley, which specializes on silk and other fabrics. House 24, Dashalan, hosts the famous Tongrentang Shop that specializes on local medicine products for the last 350 years.

The Shopping Experience

Shopping at Dashalan Lane is difficult for various reasons. First, most shop keepers do not speak English and are suspicious of foreigners. Many of the merchandises offered are not suitable for travelers and would probably be confiscated by Western customs. These are obvious and expected problems. However, the most serious one is the traveler’s inability to recognize many of the items being sold. A llama fetus being sold at the Witches Market in La Paz may be disgusting and impossible to take away – imagine the bones appearing at the x-ray machine at the airport – but at least is a recognizable item.

In sharp contrast, many of the items sold in Chinese markets loose their original shape; many endangered animals are sold there as powder or in tiny, unrecognizable bits. At first this is a confusing experience, but after a while the shopping-instincts subside and are replaced by a more natural wonder. Myriads of people around the traveler are engaged in serious transactions that make no sense to him and show thus the richness and variety of human cultures. Wasn’t that the original reason for such a trip?

I find the very idea of a zoo disgusting; even if justified by the efforts to save endangered species it is just a placebo conscience tranquilizer for ruining their habitat. Yet, time and again I find myself visiting them, since sometimes they offer fascinating insights into the human culture that created them.

Beijing’s Zoo

For some reason I never managed to read anything positive about the Beijing Zoo, so I took it as a personal challenge to do so; it didn’t took long to get disappointed and find that it wasn’t so hard to do it.

Maybe it is done as a way of indirectly criticizing a regime which does not respect basic human rights. Few would argue with this last argument, endless events support it on an almost daily base; every visit would display before the traveller such reality. However spreading out misinformation is not the way to fix the situation; on the contrary it only antagonizes local authorities.

Certain zoos became famous not due to the spread of their collections but due to their providing haven for rare or endangered species. The zoo of La Paz has at its centre a huge dome constructed of a wide framework containing several condors. Beijing’s Zoo is famous for its pandas which had become a synonym of China, many other zoos, like the one in Chiang Mai got pandas as a gift from their peer in Beijing.

Reaching the Zoo

The zoo can be reached using the subway to the Xizhimen Station; from there it is a short walk to the zoo’s main gate.

Visiting a Jail

The key point for enjoying such a visit is arriving with the right attitude; I arrived there in a cold winter day with playful snowflakes enlightening the views, to find a grand garden with only a small part of it in use.

White views immediately created a feeling of luxury, a feeling of a big personal space which is at premium price in Beijing. This fact already justified the afternoon spent there, sipping hot coffee from a thermos and writing some journals’ entries.

The huge central lake was completely frozen, and for a hot-climate dweller like me, seeing the cleaning personnel walking on the frozen lake while cleaning the fallen autumn leaves was a feast by itself. As for the animals themselves, despite all my reading about their suffering, they looked well enough.

The Cages

All the cages and spaces dedicated to them were built in the big scale of the whole place – and in a second thought in the big scale of Beijing itself. They were obviously well fed; no skinny bears were in sight.

The polar bear was feeling at home, wandering around its big cage; not far away from there a tiger was making exercises to warm himself, but otherwise looking pleased.

A lion was behind bars, but he didn’t seem to care about going out – it was just his preferred power-nap spot: I never imagined that a lion could smile till I saw this one. The herd animals obviously were not able to swallow the huge quantities of hay and other foods surrounding them.

The Stars

The pandas are the star exhibition; they are hosted in a heated pavilion since they prefer places hotter than Beijing; the traveller visits them while walking along a corridor with glass walls separating him from them. The glass doesn’t allow taking clear pictures, but it wouldn’t have made a big change since the animals are active and not surrendering to the cameras.

Native of Southern China, the pandas are endangered animals due to their dependence on the rapidly disappearing bamboo forest; the Chinese efforts to preserve the animal are remarkable especially the creation of a subtropical climate for them in a freezing cold or burning hot Beijing.

A placid animal by nature they seemed extremely happy to chew on the bamboo sticks surrounding them in their climate controlled rooms. The transparent glass walls created for sure an illusion of space. Extrapolating human emotions to animals is dangerous and wrong, however it was clear the pandas were not intimidated by human presence nor raged at the visitors, this is a good sign they are being well treated.

Outside their palace were the red pandas running and playing in the many naked trees allotted to them.

The Gift

This entry could be continued in a very similar fashion for the rest of the animals in the zoo. The only weird thing I spotted during the visit was the little CD accompanying the entrance ticket; it contained a four minutes long video clip dedicated to animals which not all of them were hosted in the zoo, and even those who were, were shown elsewhere. That could be understandable, but I was very surprised to find a few gargantuan dinosaurs roaming among Lilliputian trees; nothing similar could be spotted within the park.