China Zoo

Let me start by saying this weekend I saw a black bear ride a motorcycle on a tight rope with a man hanging below on a ribbon swing. And before you say yea right this is not possible, I have pictures to prove it!

So yes, I went to the zoo thinking I would see a bunch of cages with one or 2 animals in each. But everything in China has to have some shock value. One word - Liger! In America we think of this lion-tiger mix as a myth! But in China they make it happen! There were literally 20 ligers in this zoo! And pictures of how they were made if you were unsure! As always, the monkeys where very entertaining. This one jerk man was holding a banana in front of the monkeys to make them reach out of the cage right before he pulled it away at the last minute. We all called him an ass in English, but that didn’t stop me from taking a picture. So the bear exhibit had 3 bears and 2 of them were fighting! That’s right I saw a real live bear fight! I was promised that you can pay extra to be dropped into the tiger exhibit in a small cage to feed them but I was told that event was out of season. Do tigers not eat in the winter I don’t understand? I was also told that the elephants will pick you up with their trunks but couldn’t find any proof. Maybe that is out of season as well.
So apart from the exhibits they have circus type shows, including men riding emus, camel races, dogs jumping throw burning hoops, elephants forming pyramids and random tribal dancing. The most amazing was the bears, of course. So the show starts with 2 black bears climbing up a metal pole to get some kind of food and then the trainers grab this small rope around the bear’s neck and lead the bears through the crowd of people! The bears don’t have a muzzle or anything; they walk on their hind legs eating whatever the treat was as if it was nothing. One of the floats had a trainer with boxing gloves fighting the bear! It was like these bears where human, oh and many bears where dressed in costumes. You think dogs look embarrassed in the stupid sweaters, this doesn’t even compare! I was screaming and ohh ing and awing the whole time. But my friends just kept saying it was hard to watch. Unnatural but amazing! The bear on the tight rope was the grand finally. Weird, crazy weird. But just another weekend in China!