Shanghai Wild Animal Park
This is an animal park, located about forty kilometres from Shanghai, that we wanted to visit a long time ago with the children. The problem in Shanghai is time and temperature. And I know from experience how tiring it is for the whole family to walk in a park, even in the shade, at 40 degrees. We therefore planned to visit it in spring or autumn, when the temperatures are still mild and the weather is fine. Finally, between our weekends and time, we had to wait a long time! But it's finally done!
There are two zoos in Shanghai. The first one is quite old, partially renovated only, but easily accessible (30 minutes from downtown) near HonqQiao airport. We have been going there very regularly since we are in Shanghai, because it is easy to reach, the price is very reasonable (the equivalent of 5€ for an adult and children do not pay up to 1,20m). The second - which I am talking about today - is bigger, newer and with more animals, but it is also farther from Shanghai (near Pudong airport, it takes almost 50 minutes by taxi from downtown).
One Saturday morning at the beginning of May (yes you notice how up to date I am in my articles!), so we took the family taxi a little before 10am. We arrived at the park just before 11:00. The time to buy tickets (count 130RMB per adult - free for children under 1.30cm), to go to the washroom and queue up to enter the park was almost 11:30am.
The park is divided into two parts. A first part that can be visited on foot, like all zoos. And some kind of safari to visit by bus. With the entrance ticket, a classic tourist bus is included in the price to visit this part of the park. But the wait is long! There was at least an hour's wait on the day we were there and finally sat in a classic bus, we don't see much, since the animals are really at the side of the road at the foot of the bus (and not far away).
After visiting a small part of the zoo which is visited on foot and having lunch of a burger and fries (to please the children), we chose, but by chance, it must be said, to pay an additional ticket (20RMB per adult) to take the bus grilled that feeds the animals. And it was finally a very good choice because the children were amazed to see the animals right at their feet.
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In front of the gates, the children were in the front row seats to observe the animals. The bus regularly stopped, the guide threw some pieces of food through traps and we could observe the animals very closely!
The safari section is divided into several zones. In the first one, peacocks, goats and camels are found among others. The bus stops to feed the animals. Here the goats came to see what there was to eat...
The second part is the "savannah" part, without carnivores. The animals are clearly accustomed to receiving food, they wait for the bus along the road... And then it must be said that the buses follow one another and a few minutes away all day long.
But it's still impressive to see them so close. We could almost touch them.
Then we pass through the spaces of large animals and carnivores that follow one another: lions, bears, tigers, leopards... At each new enclosure, the bus stops and throws food to the animals. To increase the "impressive" side, they sometimes taunt the animals with food at the end of a spade. As a result, a bear was hung on the bars of the bus during part of our stay in the bear pen... The children loved it!
The bus finally takes us back to our starting point after having made a kind of loop in the park.
And then we continued our walk through the zoo. The pens are beautiful and large. We cross all the animals we saw during our safari. I assume that the caretakers rotate the animals between those in the pens inside the zoo and those on the safari.
In almost every enclosure, for a few RMB, you can enter, touch, feed and photograph with the animals. Whether it's kangaroos, macaws, hippos or monkeys. In fact, we suffered a huge crisis of tears and misunderstanding from Little Miss Sunshine when we explained that we didn't want her to caress the kangaroos. We explained our reasons to her for a long time, taking her as a point of comparison, she, who can no longer stand that the Chinese systematically touch her when they pass by her. But it was a difficult time, though.
Here, a healer accompanied a tourist to feed a hippopotamus and take pictures.
His little one was sheltered in a smaller pen next to his mother who was being photographed.
The animals are beautiful, they look really well groomed and the pens are rather well designed.
Nevertheless, I was very uncomfortable in this zoo during my visit. I am particularly uncomfortable with the principle of accepting that animals should be touched for remuneration. Maybe if I had more information about this zoo before I went, I wouldn't have been there. Especially not with the kids.
In China, in zoos, the Chinese throw everything and anything to eat to animals: carrots, chips, cake, plastic packaging... despite the prohibitions. They knock on the windows, scream or flash with their cameras just to wake up the animals. I find these behaviors particularly intolerant. I fully understand the interest for this new zoo to offer an intermediate solution. We didn't see anyone throwing food into the cages. People seemed to respect the fact that they only touched them and fed them for remuneration. But it still bothers me.
At the same time, the animals are also staged with shows such as that of the fawn's food, where a tiger is deliberately blown off the windows to satisfy the spectators' desires.
Or we can go for a walk on the elephants...
And then there is a show several times a day, with very loud music, where many animals are presented on stage, but we didn't go to see it.
You will understand that I am mixed on this zoo and that we will certainly not go back there. Even though we had a nice day. Their principles are too contrary to ours.