We almost did not go to this Wild Animal Park because the website was unclear about how much we could see without a car, and you had to take a taxi after the metro. But we spoke to our neighbors Marsha and Frank and they loved it, so we decided to go. It was easy…once we saw what the Chinese were doing to get around.
We took the metro all the way out… took about 45 minutes. Then got a cab to the park — only about 5 minutes. Then had to buy tickets, all in Chinese and there are 4 lines for different kinds of tickets and who knows what you are buying? I bought 3 tickets for just the park. Turns out there was a circus show, too, we could have seen, for another $20 per person.
Then we tried to figure out how to do the safari where you ride inside an open-air, caged bus. The Chinese workers’ directions of how to get to the safari bus were awful. I guess without much English, it’s tough. The first one said, “Just to your left there,” where there was a parking lot with buses. Paul had seen a picture of the busses on the internet so knew what we were looking for, and that was not it. After walking to various places we found it, but then there was another line for more tickets. I asked how much and she said 240RMB (which is like $32 per person). I walked away, but then saw the sign below her that said 4oRMB. Just then a bunch of Chinese arrived to wait in line for these tickets, but I shoved back to the front (Chinese style) and asked for 3 tickets — I had just been there and would have bought them. (Chinese style) she sold them to me since I was there. Then we boarded the bus.
It was fabulous. The bus has food for the different animals so they walk close to the bus. There is one guy who feeds and says a bit about the animals, then there is a driver. There are other buses you can take that are normal busses where you view from the closed windows. Those were in front of us. The bus driver was bizarre. He kept honking his horn at the other buses to hurry up. Sometimes he would try to drive around them. I don’t know why he was in such a hurry! For all of us on the bus, this was a great opportunity to see big animals up close. But you could barely take pictures because the driver stopped a very short time, or not at all.
The tigers were willing to lazily walk up and get a bit of meat. The giraffes were happy to come take the leaves. The zebras, camels, antelope and deer didn’t really care we were there. They stood in the rode or next to it. The wolves seemed a bit afraid of the bus.
But the bears were happy to jump up on the metal cage of the bus and ride along quite a ways while the feeder kept giving them carrots. It was amazing. They easily hung on to the bus while it drove around turns!
After the safari, you can walk around the other half of the park and see the zoo. We saw Chinese pedaling these carts and wanted one. It was quite an effort to figure out how and where to get one. You have to be a bit pushy in asking when you find the guy who rents them. It’s a $90 deposit, then $12 an hour to rent. This really saved my food!
