A Day at the Nanchang Zoo

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Lea only woke up once last night in need of a diaper change but went right back to sleep afterward. She slept well and ate a good breakfast. Well, actually, she ate everything. No matter what I put on her plate she ate it. She drank her bottle of formula and then ate banana bread, congee (a rice-based porridge), scrambled eggs, watermelon, and cherry tomatoes. She also loves the Gerber Banana Puffs that I brought with us. She definitely has a healthy appetite.

After breakfast, we all loaded up on the tour bus with our strollers, diaper bags, and our guide, Echo, and headed off to the Nanchang Zoo.



It was a small zoo compared to some that I have been to, but I must say, it was quite interesting. Entering the zoo, the first thing we saw were a couple of elephants. They were quite active. The bigger one would come over to the rail and put it's head over toward us. Then it would walk forward across the front of the habitat and then stop and walk backwards. It was quite funny. As we were looking at them a zoo keeper brought a baby elephant down the sidewalk right behind us. After the elephants we saw some horses and camels and then the baby Panda. He was eating though and wouldn't turn around so I got pictures of his backside only. Then there were the penguins. They were very active. The girls really enjoyed watching them.



Unfortunately, it was Lea's nap time and she slept almost the whole time.

Next was the monkey cage with some small "gold-faced" monkeys running all around and playing. We wandered through the reptile house and saw a few alligators and a couple of crocodiles, all in separate cages. There was one large python doing what all pythons do - nothing. Although it had recently shed it skin because there was a rather large pile of snakeskin in one corner. Around past the reptiles were a bunch of ostriches that would reach out and bite you if you got close enough - clearly, that cage could use a redesign. Past the ostriches were a pair of lions sharing a cage - one male and one female. We passed some more monkeys and a chimp, a couple of wolves, two bears, more camels, a large coi pond and then the pentacle of the entire Nanchang Zoo experience: Dogs! That's right, dogs. There was a large area with a single medium cage in the center and several smaller cages along one side. The center cage housed a pair of Dobermans and the end cages contained, one each, a Rottweiler, a German Sheppard, a Husky and a couple of others that I couldn't make out. There were a couple of what looked like Chows running around in the main area. Basically, it looked like our street on any weekend except they were in cages. Our guide told us that they rarely keep dogs as pets here.

After the zoo we had another traditional Chinese lunch at a very nice four-story restaurant. We were on the fourth floor and had our own private room with one large round table with the same lazy-susan in the center for sharing each dish. There was also a sitting area with couches and a coffee table along one side of the room, which was nice as 3 of the 4 girls were ready for diaper changes. Lunch was great. We had noodles, rice, stir-fried spicy green beans, shrimp with cashews, and some other meat things that didn't appeal to me, but everyone else liked them. Randy did bite into one of the red peppers that flavor the green beans and I thought his head was going to explode. He drank all of his water, the rest of my water, and then order 5 more bottles of water for the table. I thought it was very good, and very spicy, but Randy's palate was not quite ready for it.

We finished lunch and got back in the tour bus. Now, it's off to Nanchang's Wal-Mart. Most of the clothes I brought for Lea were too big. I was told that she weighed 18 pounds, but after weighing her on the scale in the hotel room, she's barely 14 pounds. It's also very warm here so I wanted to look for something light-weight that might fit better. All the clothes in the Wal-Mart were long sleeve and winter-weight clothes. Apparently, they go by time-of-year rather than temperature when they dress here. Most everyone is in long sleeves and sweaters. I'm in short sleeves and sweating!

For dinner tonight, we decided to try the buffet in the hotel restaurant. It was very good, I thought. Randy was very happy with the fried cod fillets. There were lots of vegetables for me and Lea, once again, got plenty to eat. After dinner we decided to turn in. It was a long day with lots of walking and tomorrow is a shopping trip!

Good night from Nanchang!