Pandas at the Beijing Zoo
10/4/2000
Yesterday I had another enriching experience touring Beijing.
After a sumptuous breakfast we left the hotel at 9am. We went to the Beijing Zoo.
I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive. Humm, why would I be scared of
going to the zoo? As an ardent animal rights supporter, I would have been
disheartened to see animals caged in poor conditions. However, since I have not
seen pandas for a while, I decided to go. We went to the zoo and visited the
panda display. To my delight this enclosure was
actually pretty modern and was created with the panda's health and safety in
mind. Initially I was disappointed to see most of the pandas have their backs
turned toward us. However, I was delighted by this really, really adorable panda
that was sitting in a tree. At least it was attempting to sit in the tree. Every
few seconds he will be moving in order to find a more comfortable spot. That was
really the highlight of the morning. We then left
the zoo, so I was spared the crowd and seeing the other animals who may have
been kept in less than modern, western standards.
We then visited the antique street. We were warned that over 90% of the
stuff are really reproduction. It was interesting seeing all these items. I
just know that there are a lot of starving artists in China. Since I'm not
into these items, I mostly just browsed around.
I was most amazed by this person doing miniature carving. To see the words
and drawings, you have to use a magnifying glass to see the tiniest of
things. I think Intel should hire him to work on our microchips.
I was somewhat embarrassed for showing too much interests in some snuff
bottles only to have this friendly sales lady who proceeded to show me over
100. After a few minutes I had to beg forgiveness and ran off. I did find
out that the way to paint these snuff bottles is to use a very long and
narrow brush in order to paint the bottle from the inside. Amazing. I cannot
even paint on a regular piece of paper.
We then met up with the delegation for lunch.
