Day 5 - Wednesday 26th August, 2015

Vicki's Day Out # 2 – Beijing Zoo & Aquarium (yes – again!)

Felling better than the day before and having been loaded up with “indian medicine” from Preshant (god I love him...and his medicine), I headed back to the Beijing Zoo, as I didn't see half of it and I wanted the see the aquarium and hopefully see the while whales.

Another subway journey conquered – I am a master at this now! :)

I got the cheapest ticket into the zoo RMB15 (AUD $3.50) and then navigated across the zoo to the other side where the Aquarium is, and bought a ticket – RMB150 (AUD$30)

WOW – my first impression was that Steve will be spewing he missed this the other day! Impressive is an under statement! It is amazing, and huge on a grand scale as only the Chinese know how.

I must have taken a good 400 photos of fish! 

And then I found the White Whales – 2 of them. OMG – they are so beautiful and playful and they looked happy. I stayed there for a good 20mins and took another hundred photos. Trying to capture their happy face as they played.

There was a huge auditorium where they held animal tricks etc a few times a day and it seats 3000 people and this auditorium must have been 90% full – on a Wednesday for crying out loud – why aren't these people working?

Anyway, it was good – your typical performing seals and dolphins jumping and the white whales came out too.

I loved the Jelly Fish section and the coral reef section too. It was just amazing!

 Here are some of my favourite fish photos!  :)  ('cause you knew I had to add more photos right!?)

And once I had left the aquarium it was another big lap around the zoo to see all the things we missed the other day. I still didn't see it all, but I saw the monkey section in full (only the gorilla's were not out, and the Chimpanzees were not interested in being social). 

 I found the avairy and saw some exotic birds. I didn't go back to the see the Panda's today. It was another stinking hot day and I am sure they would have been sleeping somewhere out of sight.

 This is a Racoon!

This is the "Lesser Panda" - or as we know it - The Red Panda.

 This is a Brown Bear cub posing for the people!

I stayed at the zoo for a good 4.5hours all up. Its bloody awesome! Its huge, the grounds are so beautiful and picturesque. Every corner a postcard (if it wasn't for the thousands of people in the way). 

Sure some of the animals enclosures could do with a good upgrade, but you can't get hung up on that, as it is their country and they will make improvements – they can't not do it. The animals are active and lively and thats more than we get half the time at our own Melbourne Zoo's! So I was very grateful for all that I saw and experienced.

Oh and no one wanted to take photos with me today :( feeling very unloved I was!! But it might have been because I was sweating profusely and looking terribly “ill” with it.

So another subway journey back to the hotel and possibly my last, so I enjoyed every minute of it – even being crushed to death on Line 6 for 4 stops! Lol I made my way to the supermarket and bought my last lot of wonton's in various flavours and some more fruit and treated myself to a french pastry from the bakery! 

Wonton's - I love these!!

 Fruit Salad - AUD$3

 mmm..... Egg Tart and Cream Cheese Citrus Tart - yummy!!

I am feeling so much better this afternoon and very grateful for Prashant and the magical medicine he gave me this morning!

Had a very long luxurious bath and now getting ready for dinner with the Genelec crowd.

Unfortunately by 7.30pm when Steve arrived back at the hotel to get me – the lurgie had taken a hold again and we decided I was best to stay in the night.

I saved Steve from a fate worse than death as it turns out – as they ate Silkworm and Bull-Frog for dinner!! LOL I wonder what tonight will hold in store – poor Steve!! A few more hours and we'll be in Canada and he can eat “normally” again! Lol The poor man has lived on “Pringles” and 2min Noodles for dinner so far. Thank goodness the hotel breakfast has been good, so he's loaded up!! lol

NOTE: Have found out why the air in Beijing has been so crystal clear, and why there are so many people with kids around. There is a huge military parade on the 3^rd September, and as a result, they shut half of the factories in the area down for 1 month!! And people can only drive their cars every other day as they want the city to appear cleaner than it really is for the parade. With nice blue skies instead of heavy smog.  So with half the population being off work – they are all out enjoying “holidays”. This is also why we couldn't visit The Foribbden City as it was closed in readiness for the parade. Only in China! :)