Shanghai Zoo

There's a lot to be said about the Shanghai Zoo. It is, like so many other things in Shanghai, ridiculously large. The Zoo is best described as a park-like setting with contained wild animals. Unlike the utterly compact Pittsburgh Zoo, the animals are spread out in such a way that you can forget you are in a zoo, but rather believe you are in a regular city park. That is, until you suddenly come across something like the the bactrian camels.


My main goal with going to the zoo was to see animals that we don't normally get to see in the smaller city zoos we frequent in the U.S. and are somewhat unique to China. That especially meant pandas, of course. Sleeping pandas, but pandas nonetheless.


Right after taking that picture I sent Randy a text message, "I have now seen a panda in China. Can I go home now?"

In other "Only in China" sights, we watched people feed the animals. I'm not sure if this is forbidden or permitted or just allowed. Even if you are allowed to feed the animals, though, I doubt they mean for you to break a branch off of the nearest tree and feed the giraffe whole apples. Or maybe it does.



The aquarium setting came in handy again when we found the hippopotomus sleeping under water.


If you go, I would advise going to this zoo on a day when your schedule isn't terribly tight. It is easy to get lost, and just wander aimlessly, even when you think you are heading towards the exit.