In Chinese, the Word for Panda is 熊貓, or "Bear Cat"

Saturday dawned relatively clear and sunny once again, so we decided to head to the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas. Jessica is OBSESSED with pandas, so this promised to be a real treat for her. We also got to explore a different part of the city that we don't normally visit, the Xicheng district, which is south of Haidian, where we are living. To get to the zoo, we took our trusty Line 10 to transfer at the station where the Wal-Mart Supercenter is, and headed south on the light rail Line 4. We got off at the end of the line, and asked for directions to the zoo (now I can add "zoo" to my burgeoning Chinese lexicon, zoo is "dongwuyuan"). We were walking against a tide of thousands of people departing the zoo, who were easily recognizable as many of them carried inflatable toys in the shape of exotic animals (plus Mickey Mouse). We were pleased that so many people were leaving the zoo at this time.

The entrance fee for students is a mere 8 yuan, plus an extra 5 yuan for the panda enclosure, making the Beijing Zoo a pretty good deal. The place was packed with families--Jessica and I have been enjoying the pretty quiet, child-free nature of Beijing but the zoo was most certainly NOT child free. There were kids everywhere, mostly under the age of 10, and the butt-slit count was at an all time high (some kids in China do not wear diapers, instead have a slit in their pants that allows their bottoms to swing free in the breeze and assault your eyelids, and allows them to just do their business right there on the side of the road). Most of the kids are pretty cute, and it's sort of funny to see their bums hanging out, but it's not that pleasant to be in the vicinity when a kid has to do #2 right next to you!

The panda enclosure was a real treat, as the zoo has about 5 pandas currently there. We got to see pandas engaging in many activities, such as eating, sleeping, sitting and wandering around. For someone who's been to zoos where there are only two or three pandas max (if the panda couple have a baby) this was quite exciting. Jess and I got a good laugh out of the fact that 熊貓 means "bear cat" in Chinese, which is a very apt. name. Little kids also got a lot of enjoyment out of shouting "熊貓! 熊貓!" and other such clever things.

The zoo has high points and low points. Other high points included the monkey enclosure, the kangaroo pen and then giraffe pen. Those are nicely designed, new and look appropriate for the animals. The big cat house was very sad and depressing, it was your stereotypical blank, concrete cells with just bars on the front. The cats didn't look very happy, just bored. It also smelled horribly like cat pee (to be expected). We had to leave because it was just too depressing. The elephant pen was also mostly blank, just concrete walls and a large sandy floor.

After the zoo we went to a nearby market, but it was closing up shop so we went home. Overall it was a fun day, and certainly worth it for the pandas alone. Even though a panda at another Chinese zoo recently mauled a man for climbing into the enclosure, they were still very cute and fun to watch.