Before Timothy left our city, we decided to ride the #10 bus to northeast corner of town and enjoy some of the local wildlife. In this photo, you can see a typical shot of Timothy, fishing pole in hand. But this is China, and the pier is not an ordinary fishing pier:
Over the past five years, he’s pulled in some pretty big catfish from Lake Allatoona, but when you go catfishing in Yunnan province, get ready for some serious action – click here to see what comes next: Catfishing
The Yunnan Wild Animals Park was actually very well done, with a lot of interesting exhibits spread over 2800 acres of property. When we walked up to the ticket window to pay for admission, it was interesting to note that they don’t show the price for the actual ticket, just for the optional personal accident insurance:
The reason for this became obvious while we were eating our picnic lunch, watching some guys in fatigues manage monkeys. These monkeys were just jumping around the trees while their “handlers” stood beneath with switches and shouts to keep them away from the visitors:
Perhaps you’ve read about smoking in China. It is estimated that over 300 million people of all ages smoke here, far and away the highest number on the planet. And from this photo, it appears that the smoking habit is spreading:
When someone tossed a lighted cigarette onto this gorilla’s platform, he picked it up, took a few puffs, and put it down. He was obviously very good at imitating the customers. Of course, there are other dangers as well. We enjoyed this sign that was posted on the tiger enclosure:
The park itself is quite beautiful, set on the northeast side of town with some good views of the western mountains:
It was definitely one of the most interesting places we’ve visited here so far. You can get very close to the animals, sometimes in very large quantities – there must be a thousand peacocks/peahens in this section:
Definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in town!
Wow! Love the video of the catfishing… and the gorilla smoking. Sounds like it’s a lot more entertaining than American zoos.
I was so surprised to see that Timothy looks to be taller than Mark! Then I realized that I have not seen him for years!!!! Glad that you had a good time with visiting family. Glad that you have some ‘family’ there.
S – definitely different than the states. Based on the agressive nature of the tigers (and lions and bears), I suspect that they were underfed. And if you had a tougher edge and were willing to spare the extra few RMB, you could fish for tigers with a live chicken…
The posted signs are so funny! Our whole household really enjoyed this post and especially enjoyed seeing Tim fishing for the cat.
I am amazed at how low the handrails are and how hungry the tigers are – not a good combination.
Before we entered the park, we wondered why they sold personal accident insurance. Once inside, it becomes obvious, especially if something jumps out of a tree onto your head or if you choose to pose while holding a lion cub. As with most of China, every nerve of your DuPont-trained body stays on edge here.