I know people use the phrase "concrete jungle", but come on ...

You want to know what the saddest thing in Beijing is? Let me show you:
That's right, folks. Right in the midst of boundless pride associated with national week, Ted and I witnessed one sad excuse of a zoo today at the Beijing Zoo. While we had heard that the place was ghetto fabulous and the admission was only 20 yuan (compared to the 100 yuan for the new aquarium), we still thought it would be worth the walk to see the pandas and such at the largest zoo in China.

Well, I guess you get what you pay for. Not only did we get to see exotic animal species such as nutria and skunks, but we also got to see animals in exquisite cages which included such luxury items as fake plants and painted backgrounds. As Ted put it, you could just see the designer saying, "They're just stupid animals; they can't tell the difference if it is real or painted on!" But the worst was probably a tie between the big cat house and the nocturnal animals. As you can see, the big cats all looked like they wanted to die: they were either curled up in a corner or pacing furiously, looking as if they wanted to tear the head off of every last one of the gawking zoo goers. The nocturnal animal house featured cracked windows which looked like they had been patched with spackle and animals that were traumatized by endless flash photography and screaming children. Don't worry though, there was a sign saying there was no smoking allowed.

Other wonderful interactions witnessed at the zoo were children throwing trash and food into the open enclosures, a man throwing rocks at a sick wolf that was missing one ear, and a man tapping on the glass of the outer cage for polecats, which were all housed in cages ... inside the glass enclosure.

Even as sad as those images are, the worst thing witnessed on the day was at the bear enclosure. Looking depressed and hungry, one bear began to paw at a cracker that a kid threw down into the mud and concrete enclosure. I kid you not, there was a construction zone directly behind the bears, concrete was everywhere, the only "natural" thing there was dirty looking water in the corner, the trees were even surrounded by concrete, and the bear sat there, trying to paw a cracker out of the mud.

As sad as it was, Ted and I decided to go check out the main attraction before heading home, the giant panda house. While these enclosures had obviously had more time and effort put into their construction, the pandas were so put off my the chaos and flashbulbs surrounding them that they sat facing the back wall of their enclosures as to avoid the herd of pushing gawkers and small children, all being yelled at by some dude with a megaphone who was probably there to control the crowd.

So what we thought was going to be a nice half day at the zoo turned out to be the downer of the week. After seeing such horrible enclosures and depressed animals, we couldn't help but take it home with us, as we haven't stopped a second to catch our breath from the time our plane landed this weekend. Needless to say, we spent the second half of the afternoon relaxing on the roof of the hostel, reading, emailing, and soaking in the sun of what was the most beautiful day so far of our stay in Beijing. Yes, we could even see the moon and some clouds, which was a first, as we usually can't even see the sun on an average day because the pollution is so bad.

After some much needed relaxation and some store-bought soup with steamed buns from the hutong, I think we will be ready to hit the streets again tomorrow.