The Beijing Zoo and Aquarium

So as part of our holiday weekend, Kamala and I got up early this morning to go to the zoo.  The zoo is on the other side of town, so we left at about 6:30am via moped.  We arrived as the zoo was just opening and were able to beat most of the crowds to the panda exhibit.  Below are some pictures of us near the pandas.   The zoo also had two baby pandas, and we got to see one of the adult pandas sneeze while lounging on its back... A few years ago someone was mauled by one of these pandas because he climbed into the exhibit.  He said the panda looked like it wanted to cuddle.  At the time, I thought the guy was crazy.  Now, I get it, they do look like they want to cuddle.

That's right, that's a panda in the background...

Two baby pandas eating bamboo...the lower one is on the ground because earlier he had rolled backwards out of his hammock

Kamala and Giant Panda

The zoo also had red pandas.  Kamala wants one...

This bear was literally like 6 feet from us.  He/she was very "comfortable" with themselves.





Later in the zoo we came across the big cat exhibits and other bears.  These exhibits were very sad.  They were barely more than prison cells for the animials.  The grizzly bears were the worse, begging for food while people tried to get them to do tricks.  They were bombarded with popcorn and seeds, it was very sad.  We went into the big cats exhibit, saw the status of the cages, and literaly turned back around.  We didn't want to be a part of their situation.  Overall, the zoo was very good at the animal's treatment.  The monkeys had one of the coolest habitats I have ever seen, and they seemed very happy to be in it.  There were also tons of animals I have never seen before.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm kind of an animal buff.  I was definitely a "shark week" kid when it came on discovery channel.  One of the animals I had never seen was a tall fox.  The fox was bigger than the wolves in the exhibit next to it.  It was from South America.  I want one.  I want to take it to the dog park, and when people are like "what is that", I'll reply with "it's a fox...obviously...

Awesome big cat statue. 

Kamala and a Camel

My fox... I will name him "Wolf"

Temple of Heaven

This past weekend was the autumn festival in China.  Kamala and I decided to celebrate by doing some of things that we haven't yet had a chance to do.  On Saturday, even though it was cold and rainy, we decided to go to the Temple of Heaven.  The Temple of Heaven is about 40 minutes from our house.  So we took the bus to the subway to the temple.  The temple was built in 1420 and served as a place of fitual for the Ming and Qing emperors.  They were usually used to pray for good harvest in the upcoming seasons.  There are two parts, a northern and southern.  the norther part of the park is rounded to represent heaven, and the souther part is squared to represent the earth (as the earth was perceived flat at that time).  The rain had driven away any large crowds, but there were still many people there.  Kamala and I did find a place in the park where we could walk and enjoy the outdoors with very little crowds.  It was the first time since we came to Beijing we were outside without seeing other people around us.