XiangJiang Safari Park

Today we made the trip to the Consulate to turn in the last batch of paperwork and to process Lily Rose's visa. We forgot to put the memory card back in the camera, so we just took a picture when we got back to the hotel room.

One of our most exciting days so far was yesterday when we made a trip to the XiangJiang Safari Park in Guangzhou. Last time we were in China we visited the Guangzhou Zoo, and it was a bit depressing. The enclosures were small and the animals look depressed. In stark contrast to the zoo, the safari park had huge natural enclosures and large plains for the animals to graze in natural habitats. It was better than the San Diego Zoo which is the best U.S. zoo I've ever visited.
The visit started out with a tram ride called "safari on wheels" through the Asia and African plains. After the tram ride, we walked through the zoo area. The weather was perfect for the first two hours. It was an overcast day, so it wasn't so hot. Then the rain began, but our guide came armed with umbrellas, so it didn't slow us down too much.

Lily Rose made up for all of her lack of crying in one day, crying and screaming through much of the park. She screamed what sounded like "Ah - Me - Ah" which is Shanghainese for "That Way" every time I stopped walking. The Chinese DO NOT like their children to cry, much less scream, in public. It was really quite humorous as everyone looked on. They had no idea what she was saying say they speak Cantonese and Mandarin in this province, and she was screaming in Shanghainese (her dialect). We tried everything to soothe her...letting her walk, feeding her, giving her bottled water, even buying her ice cream...we had no idea what was making her so upset. She wasn't acting afraid, just mad. As long as I walked in the direction that she deemed was toward exit, she was slightly happier, but if I stopped to look at an animal or retracked my steps, we were all in big trouble. We finally just ended our trip early and called it a day. Needless to say she collapsed in her crib upon returning to the hotel and took a nice long nap! The day was still amazing as we got to see white tigers and pandas...two of China's magnificent animals. One of the interesting shows at the zoo was at the tiger enclosure. They had three different types of tigers in one enclosure. Evidently tigers love swimming (a fact I didn't know until reading the signs and facts about tigers.). During the show they held raw meat above the water. The tigers jumped up and got the meat, fell into the water and then happily swam and played in the water. It was quite a show to see how high they could jump and then to see them paddling around the water.The zoo also had an amazing breeding program. We got too see a plethora of baby animals including tigers, leopards, meerkats, monkeys, chimpanzees, bear, etc. If you are ever traveling to Guangzhou, I would put this safari park on the must see list!!

Tomorrow we leave 2:30 p.m. to pick up Lily's visa and then make our way to the train station. We board the train at 5:30 p.m. to head to Hong Kong. We will spend the night in Hong Kong and then fly out Friday a.m. for the States. We've had a great trip despite my cold turned to sinus infection. (I'm sure glad I brought cold meds and an antibiotic.) Our guide, Aron, has been wonderful which always makes the trip more enjoyable. It's been the perfect blend of sightseeing and free time. It will be sad to say "good-bye" to China but I'm ready to see my girls and Phil!! Just 3 more days:)