Perhaps you remember from my previous post that we did not see any Pandas in the Qinling Zoological Park in both of our visits. But we actually never went there mainly to see these cute animals as we had the perfect location to see them: Shaanxi Wild Animal Conservation Research Centre
My wife’s godfather invited us to that place back in 2011 when my parents were in China as well. Basically he (the godfather) knows someone who knows somebody who was able to get us access to that place for free as there are usually no visitors except of course some well-paying tour groups. I believe it used to be more like a little zoo before as there were still signs and paths all around that place but in a very poor condition. Furthermore to get there was like a maze as towards the end the mini bus had to drive through very small streets of some village to get into a mountain path in the forest. I guess the village just expanded over the years and swallowed the road leading to this research center.
I knew already about this place prior to this visit as my wife had pictures on her Facebook with Pandas before we even started dating. So from her I knew already that there were many Pandas and baby Pandas around at least when she was there. As you know my luck by now there were no cute baby Pandas at this place when we visited. To make it even worse they had only a very limited number of these animals as most were at the Xi’an China International Horticultural Exposition 2011…
But we did see a few Pandas but sadly they were already too big that we were not allowed to enter the cage to feed them. Usually this would have been already enough for us but godfather had another surprise for us, the only brown coloured Panda in the world! As you can see now that the world already knows about this animal however back then it was still a secret and thus we were not allowed to take any pictures.
Little fluffy fluff fluff!
Besides the Giant Pandas there were many other animals such as one of the rarest birds in the world the crested ibis or other animals such as the red panda, leopards and the golden monkey. All in all I can say it was a very interesting trip no matter if there were only a few Pandas to be seen as we learned many interesting facts about the rare species in that research center. I can just recommend to visit this place if you ever have the chance.
Have you ever seen Pandas close up or other rare animals?
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During the trips to China we have visited few places there. However those places were always nearby Xi’an as my dear wife turn into a role model couch potato once she arrives in her parents apartment. Usually the only means to get her away from the beloved sofa and TV are either restaurants or animals. In this case animals worked as we manged to even go twice to the Qinling Zoological Park.
The Park itself is roughly 28km away from Xi’an and is located, as the name suggests, at the starting point of the Qinling Mountain Range. The Park is advertising to have more than 300 animal species including the Giant Panda! But more about it later on…
It was pretty exciting for me there the first time as I just love good Zoo’s. This one even offered some kind of safari tour in which you sit in the back of a truck with metal bars around to be protected against more dangerous animals. Of course I wanted this tour as I never had experienced something like that before.
At the beginning of the Zoo is even a little theme park. My in-laws offered that we go there however it didn’t look too safe in my opinion and I was pretty much right about it. Why you may ask well, a couple of years later there was an accident at the theme park with three people injured. Of course this could happen in any theme park but when I see that the amusement rides are full of rust and some parts fell already off I just don’t really have the urge to try it out myself.
Right after you enter the Zoo the different trucks wait for paying visitors to take the little safari tour. Needless to say that MIL was the first at the different trucks trying to get few spots for us as well. Though the whole tour is interesting I must say that the truck just drives too quickly through the different sections resulting that you don’t have time to watch the animals nor take proper pictures. For me the beginning of the tour with the giraffes, zebras, camels and so on was much more interesting than the later part with the dangerous wolves, lion and tigers as those were always sleeping some distance away in the shadows. The safari area is enclosed and each part is separated from each other by double gates to prevent animals to get out or people to get in. This on the other hand didn’t stop in 2010 a father and his son to enter the tiger area…(when researching this in Chinese you find out that those two didn’t even had tickets for the Zoo and no one knows how they even could enter!)
After the safari tour you can start the normal tour and go around following the many paths. The map you get with the tickets give a nice overview where to find what animals as otherwise walking around the whole park surely takes nearly an entire day. Now we come back to the Giant Pandas. Everywhere is advertised that there are Pandas and not only I wanted to see them but the rest of my Chinese family as well. You can imagine our disappointment when there were no Pandas in the enclosure! Now, this could have been just coincidence, perhaps they were somewhere else on that day but no. When I was there a year later there were again no Pandas and reading several reviews it seems that barely anyone has ever seen them there.
Anyways the Zoo is huge so after a while we forgot again about the Pandas and were doing our round to see all kind of different animals. Some places looked even really nice such as the little lake with the different water birds. The Zoo has even a little water show with different kind of seals. Not only allowed it us to sit down for a while but after the show was done we had the opportunity to take pictures together with one of the seals. I think MIL wanted to take the seal with her but FIL wouldn’t allow it…
You know what? Even though I just love Zoo’s and this one has a huge variety of animals it is definitely not my favorite one. For one, everything appears to be in a bad condition as if nothing has been really maintained for years. All over the park you can see these kind of things. From rusted amusement rides for the children within the park (not the theme park in front of the Zoo) over dried out water areas to buildings with huge cracks and holes in the roofs! I haven’t been in any other zoo’s in China yet but I really hope this is not the norm. I mean this park has many positive reviews from Chinese but many bad ones from foreigners.
I don’t want to say the park is bad as it offers a nice day trip away from the city however I would not recommend it as a main thing to see when visiting Xi’an as there are many other and better things to see. In case they would really start taking better care of the entire Zoo in terms of actually repairing broken things, make it look more inviting including improving the animals enclosures I will definitely go there again and perhaps then recommend it but not right now.
What are your experiences when visiting Zoo’s? Have you ever been in a Chinese Zoo?
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Most of the blog posts around this time of the year are about Christmas so I decided it would be nice to write about something else (honestly, I had a Christmas article already prepared…). This blog post is something I promised you already for almost a year but I had pushed it aside as I never felt like writing about it. So here we go now, the story of how my wife and I met and how we fell in love.
It all started in January 2009. Back then I just started my university life in Helsinki and new things could be found behind every corner. It was then near the end of January when my Finnish course started, to be precise, I believe it was the 20th of January. I had to sign up for this course as I registered at the University as a foreigner, not a Finnish citizen, though I have both nationalities and the course was compulsory for foreigners. In this language course were of course people from all kind of countries, especially China. Little did I know back then that my future wife would be sitting just in front of me.
My wife and her godfather with a Panda. This is how I remember her from back then minus the Panda
In the beginning we did not speak to each other, we noticed each other but that was pretty much it. It took even the whole next Finnish language course that we talked to each other for the very first time in May 2009. It was not even any small talk, she wanted to ask me about what places to visit in Germany as she planned a short trip there with her friends there. You see, there was zero going on between us. It was the very last day of class when she asked me about Germany and a three-month holiday was ahead of me. Before this question I already noticed her a bit more than back then in January but I just did not dare to talk to her, later I found out that she felt the same way. So during my long summer holiday I often had this Chinese girl on my mind whose real name I didn’t know then, just the English name she gave at the class introduction. During that time I did not know whether we would meet in the next Finnish course again as she had apparently started a year before me and thus was done with the compulsory amount of language classes.
My wife and her friends with Santa
Three months later there she was again in the next language class and sitting few rows away. However again we did not talk at all during the entire time except saying “Hello” when waiting in the hallway before class started. It would not change at all until the fourth! Finnish language course in the winter of 2009 that we would slowly start to have little chats before class and she was sitting now in the same row with me. We talked for example about with whom we would do the class assignment with (we did not do the assignment together as some certain people got in our way!), and about that she wasn’t sure whether to take the final class exam or not as she had too many exams plus her job. Occasionally she also gave me some chocolate before class but as the bum I was during that time I had never anything to share with her.
At the Zoo, note my long hair during that time!
Then there it was, the last day of the language course in December of 2009. I still did not know her proper name and I was thinking of how to ask her about it when she suddenly asked me and another girl next to her about our full names for Facebook! I gladly wrote down my name and after school and sports were done on that day I was sitting in front of my laptop for hours waiting forTHEfriend request. The request came and from that point on we started to write to each other more and more each day on Facebook until she gave me her MSN Messenger address so we could chat better and on a whole new level.
Meanwhile I was in Germany for my Christmas holiday but still I chatted with her on a daily basis for over 12 hours each. It was somewhat like a Christmas love story but of course that is probably how many feel chatting with a person who they are interested in during Christmas time…We covered all kinds of stupid chat topics and in the end of the holidays, just before classes would start again we had decided to watch “Avatar” together in Cinema. It wasn’t really a date at all even though we both had hoped for it but we just were too shy to make any real moves. Then in the beginning of February 2010 she set me a deadline because I said for a long time that I had something important to tell her but didn’t dare to. Of course anyone without even a brain knows what it was but still we were both not ready for it. So on that deadline, February the 3rd 2010, I confessed my love to her and we started our story together.
First Christmas together
The rest of the story is full of some little drama and happy things until we reach this day: We are married and have a little son together. It all started to develop five years ago, just before Christmas, around this time of the year and this is why I chose this day to share my story of how I met my wife. As you can see, good things might take their time as it took us even nearly an entire year to talk to each other though we saw each other several times a week in the language course! So don’t always expect things to work out immediately, take your time. It is not all depending on how much you try, luck is also very important in these things.
I wish you all a merry Christmas and enjoy these days as I am definitely planning to do as well as soon as all Christmas presents are bought.
Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts.
I knew already about this place prior to this visit as my wife had pictures on her Facebook with Pandas before we even started dating. So from her I knew already that there were many Pandas and baby Pandas around at least when she was there. As you know my luck by now there were no cute baby Pandas at this place when we visited. To make it even worse they had only a very limited number of these animals as most were at the Xi’an China International Horticultural Exposition 2011…
Crazy Chinese Family 