May 25th- Monkeys and Elephants and Lemurs, OH MY!

So in America, going to the zoo is for like very small kids. Which, I can kind of understand: once you have a longer attention span, looking at animals through a pane of glass over and over again can get boring. In China, however, you don't just LOOK at the animals through a pane of glass: YOU INTERACT WITH THEM!

Unlike in American zoos, they encourage you to feed the animals in China. In fact, there are small stands all around the exhibits that you can buy the animal's favorite foods from. As a result, I had the opportunity to feed carrots to zebras, branches to giraffes, bananas and other fruits to the monkeys, and some more carrots to elephants! Some students even feed chickens to wolves/tigers, but that was a little too gruesome for my test.

Besides just feeding the animals, they are also available for petting too! I never thought I would be able to pet a giraffe before, but I sure did. Also, some animals just wandered around freely. For example: the alpacas and goats. Totally just walking around. Same with the lemurs! It had started to rain, and they all just hid in this little alcove so I got to sit about 6 inches away from a pile of lemurs. Super cute! The elephant exhibit was at the top of this huge climb up the side of a mountain, but it was totally worth it because you could literally get PICKED UP BY AN ELEPHANT! I was the first one to do it before everyone else arrived, so I had no idea it was going to do that! Needless to say, I freaked out at first, ESPECIALLY when it went back on it's two hind legs! All I could hope was that it wasn't going to drop me. The other really huge highlight was when I got to hold this super cute baby monkey! I love monkeys, but I wish I could have cradled it like a baby (probably not the best idea, but it would have been fun).

Of course the biggest attraction was the pandas! Now, I'm not a huge panda person, BUT there were a TON of super cute red pandas which I LOVE. At the end of the day we went on a panda spending spree, buying up all the cool items in the panda gift shop.

As cool as the zoo in Dalian might have been, however, I prefer the United States one. As one could tell by their attractions, the guidelines for animal care aren't as strict. We saw a lot of animals in poor shape or even bleeding! I care too much for the animals to approve of their care standards. Honestly, it was practically animal abuse. After seeing how they take care of them, I wouldn't go back and contribute to the zoo with any more money. They really need to start putting the animals first.

 I guess there's some things I don't like about China. :/