Shanghai Zoo

So I couldn't resist it... I'm pretty sure that whatever country I travel to, I'm always going to want to go to the zoo. For the first time in a while I didn't go on my birthday - this year I pigged out on Korean Barbeque, I think my age is showing. Anyway, so one blustery Saturday me and fellow animal lover Aimee headed to Shanghai zoo. Needless to say, it snowed again, we definitely jinxed the weather.

My first ever Giant Panda

 I was pretty astounded at this, I know China's national animal is the Giant Panda, but being able to see one blew me away, and of course it would be sleeping on a slide, what else could be more fit for a panda? What you can't see out of shot is a child's rocking horse, ridiculous you might think, but actually it looked pretty well used, I imagine being a Panda is a pretty peculiar lifestyle. But hey, when your species is that rare I guess you can demand Victorian rocking horses and whatnot. 

 These adorable Red Panda's had to be the star attraction in my opinion, there where absolutely loads of them, pattering about with their pigeon toed gait munching on bamboo its enough to make a 20 year old squee (seriously get on youtube). I am well aware that the sleepy Giant panda is the thing to see, but these adorable little ones did it for me. They seemed pretty active despite the minus 5 temperatures, thinking about it maybe the Giant Panda had the right idea snoozing through the snow...

Shanghai zoo for me really reflected some areas of Chinese society, it was by far the biggest zoo I had ever been to (they even had grizzly bears) and a lot of other animals that I have never seen before. I felt like David Attenborough, however I don't think Mr. Attenborough would have been pleased by what we saw. I am aware its winter meaning the animals where far grumpier, and not as happy as a majority of the year but I found elements of this zoo disturbing. Much like Shanghai itself the main  attractions where amazing; the Panda's where beautifully housed, as where the bears. But the shabbier corners where a little uncomfortable for someone used to western zoos.

In my local zoo I am pretty sure most of the animals are housed and fed better than I am, but several of the animals at Shanghai zoo appeared to have mange or where shut out in the snow with little or no shelter. We even witnessed a wolf housed in pen similar to those found at a kennel with no clean water shelter or food, this sight was concealed by some corrugated iron which someone had pulled away so that observant visitors could spy. The wolf could have been in isolation due to illness I'm can't be sure, but both Aimee and I found this pretty horrific.

 I think Elements of Shanghai zoo are incredible and I am sure that in the summer months things look spectacular and I imagine all the animals are well catered too. But in the short winter days where business is slow this zoo feels a little neglected. I would recommend a visit to this zoo, but perhaps not in winter for the feint hearted. I hope I haven't put people of this zoo, perhaps its a cultural difference between the east and west but parts of this zoo are not what I had hoped for.

Suzhou

Lingering Garden Suzhou

 

 This is the Lingering Garden in Suzhou, don't be fooled by the greenery, there was snow on the roof. This is a classical Chinese Garden and it was really beautiful, there was even a lady in traditional Chinese dress draped across one of the decks. Though these photo's don't do it justice it is a world renowned garden and a heritage site.

Home visit

 

 These photo's are from the home visit organised by The Study China program. Groups of 7 or so visited teachers from Fudan University homes to get a look at life in China. We visited an amazing home and were welcomed by Grandma, Andy and our lăoshī (teacher). We received tea in the traditional way and were taught Chinese by a 4 year old, pretty impressive! We also learnt how to make dumplings and sesame balls with the family. This was probably one of the most fun experiences we had in Shanghai. Seeing how traditional elements of Chinese culture is still really strong at home was amazing.

Hangzhou

Hangzhou is a historical town not far out from Shanghai, It's renowned for it's beautiful lakes and temples so we took a day out to visit. Typically, as British tourists we managed to pick one of the coldest days to visit (it was snowing) as well as managing to get the local slow train to the wrong station. As a result we had a bit of a panic at the station and managed to surprise a lot of Locals by a little gang of British teenagers landing. After a fairly long taxi journey we reached the west Lake or Xī Hú as its called in Chinese.

We arrived fairly late and the weather was perfectly grey, but it was still a beautiful place to visit. So here's a couple photo's from around the lake.

Aimee and Bruce smiling through the cold

Me being an awesome tourist

If you look really closely one of these people isn't actually in the statue.

A wild red panda... or a cat whatever

Nanjing Lu

 These Few shots are from my first night out exploring! After a day of interesting Language classes, I headed out to see the famous Bund!


This is it, Nanjing Lu, one of the longest streets in Shanghai, and this little portion is on the walk towards The Bund. Crammed with neon signs, enormous department stores, side allies full of street food, rollerblading salesmen and thousands of people this is the epitome of Tourist Shanghai.

One of Shanghai's most impressive department stores in the new world emporium, crammed with everything and anything you could ever want. Shanghai was far more commercial than I ever could of imagined, I new it was a cultural capital and a modern city but this is the most modern and forward looking city I have ever seen. Oxford street has absolutely nothing on this!

Here's Bruce looking pleasantly bemused by the bright lights and Chinese tourists taking photo's of us!

Shanghai

So in December I spent my winter break from Sheffield University a little more productively than I had expected to. Instead I took the time to travel to China and Study at Fudan University, Shanghai for three weeks on the Study China Program. I was incredibly lucky to be accepted onto this program and really enjoyed it.

 Though it is a little late I finally have some photo's up, due to a replacement laptop, lacking CD drive and Photo software it's been  struggle to get these photo's together. But excuses excuses I've finally done it. So I'm going to share a few photo's and experiences from china.

 This is the pretty spectacular view from my bedroom window at the Tohee International Student Village. The light pollution in Shanghai impressive as this is pretty late at night and Tohee is a far stretch from The Bund, It really felt like living in the future. On the rare clear night you can even make out the famous pearl tower, who needs the Peace Garden Hotel!? Unfortunately this is pretty much the only thing I got to see on my first day in Shanghai, well apart from some death defying driving by my awesome taxi driver. I was a late arrival, got into Shanghai about 9 am, missed my opening ceremony, got to my apartment and then straight to class. Needless to say I passed out about 5pm with skull crushing jet-lag and a stomach full of noodles.