Return to The Beijing Zoo

I went back to the zoo, and spent the whole day there, or at least I was there until it closed. It's a very large zoo, as well as being home to the largest inland aquarium in the world. I could've spent another day there easily, but I lack the time.

I decided to focus on large mammals and the aquarium, bypassing the lizard house, the birds, and the deer, etc. There was also a Popular Science building I would have loved to check out. More and more I'm convinced I'll just have to come back to Beijing.

First stop was, of course, the panda house.

The pandas were very sleepy and boring, but I was patient and hung around for a while, and eventually one of them woke up in a playful mood:

I went inside for a bit, and this panda was sleeping, or at least attempting to while people tried to get it to move around by hammering the glass. How rude.

When I came outside, the playful panda had climbed a tree. Bummed I missed that. He was just hanging out up there, swinging his feet.

The lynx cage was sad. Many of the cages were sad. Don't even get me started on the elephant house. Tragic.

The tigers were lovely, and I think it's possible to go inside the mountain-shaped enclosure and see them up close through the glass, but I couldn't find the entrance.

When I saw the signs for an aquarium on my first visit to the zoo, I thought it would be a building full of tanks of fish, not the largest inland aquarium in the world.

The entrance gives way to a winding path that goes through a rainforest-like habitat.

I enjoyed the coral reef habitat. It had an escalator that took you up through the tank.

Clownfish and lionfish!

Eels are so weird looking. Seriously. Odd.

The rhinos and hippos were already in the indoor enclosures when I went around to them, and the hippos didn't feel like turning around. The end.

The penguins were adorable, they'd come right up to the glass and interact with you and pose behind you for pictures. Unfortunately, I was only able to take one picture before my camera died, though I do have several more pictures and videos of inferior quality on my phone. They were playing in the water and waddling up and down their hill. One even played with a pebble right up next to the glass. Such hams.