Lesser Pandas, Great Pandas, Donkeys, oh my!

Sooo... Long time no see everyone... This is how my day started when Huan Huan told me that what I have known as "Chinese Hamburgers" are actually made of donkey meat... Gross.

Before leaving America?  I had eaten the regular chicken, beef, and pork pieces that all Americans eat.... Shrimp and.... that's about it...

Since leaving America?  How about... Chicken feet, duck neck, rabbit, cow liver, fish head, (which is amazing because fish in general was gross 3 months ago), scallops, pork neck, and DONKEY apparently... Oh the life that I am living... quite different from the past.

On the plus side, I have started eating vegetables regularly, including the occasional salad which NEVER happened back home.  Maybe thats why my energy level is up and I feel like a million bucks everyday!

After that bit of bad news I reluctantly head to the subway instead of crawling back into bed and crying the rest of the day.  This was a mistake.  The subway was A DISASTER!!!  This week is a national holiday and apparently 1 in 10 people in China rush to BeiJing... meaning more than one hundred million people pass through this city in a period of a week.  I have a video to illustrate this for you, but unfortunately the internet in China is too poor to upload it... You'll have to wait until I'm back in the States! (Or, more likely, forget about it 3 seconds from now... I don't blame you, I would.  Don't feel bad)

The subway in BeiJing is so busy, in fact, that the stop for the BeiJing zoo is closed.  We get dropped off one stop further than we needed, but no worries... there are signs everywhere:

As we walked towards the zoo, we found what MUST BE the  ONLY store that sells  exclusively Canadian products  in the entire world.. I mean....  Really?

Fantastic...  I hate to say that I just couldn't find a moment to pop in... Maybe next time.

Shortly after this, we arrive....

The BeiJing zoo!!  Much smaller than either of the zoo's in Dallas, but still... It's the pride of China and apparently one of the largest zoos in Asia.  It claims to hold over 600 different breeds of animals, with over 5000 animals in total.. To be honest, the only way this is possible is if they are including the attached aquarium which costs extra to visit.  Maybe they have 400 kinds of fish in there, because this zoo is small.

No matter, its not the size of the boat, its the motion of the ocean, am I right ladies?  (No?  Oh... Ok.. I have been lied to for years...)  The main attraction, of course, is:

The Giant Pandas!!!!!!!!  Before we get to the pictures though,  I feel it is important to point out that pandas are not actually bears...  They are closer to the raccoon than to anyone in the bear family.  At first, this didn't seem right to me until I saw this panda skeleton and it became clear.

It looks more like a rodent than anything ferocious!  That doesn't mean they aren't cute though!

Not to play the part of Ryan Seacrest about to announce the winner of American Idol.... but before I reveal my Giant Panda pictures, I must show you the lesser panda.... More like a cross between a three toed sloth and a fox:

Isn't he cute???  Ok... now, the pandas...

Wonderous!  For those of you scoring at home...  You didn't even have to leave your chair and I have only seen three more pandas in person than you (at most)... And I live in China!...Sweet!

All right... My friend Adrian:

Picture from a different day featured later

Was hungry.. so we hit up the local zoo food stand.  Let me tell you, the food was the same, and altogether different than what you would expect at home.  I feel like this one picture will sum it up for you:

Noodles... and a hot dog!  Its like China and the West all at once!  Wait... I'm sorry, did I say hot dog?  Look again.... I meant, DOUBLE HOT DOG!

 






Adrian was wiping the ketchup off with a napkin and had no idea how to fit the two hotdogs in his mouth.. actual quote:

"Why not just make one hot dog with the same weight as these two hot dogs?  No wait, [forget] that, why not just give me two hot dogs?"

It's China, we may never know....

After Adrian found a way to choke those down, we went and saw the penguin exhibit... it consisted of some metal penguins for everyone to take pictures with....

We also saw the shark exhibit:

I literally jumped into its mouth and hung for a second until Huan Huan and Adrian yelled at me in a terrified manner that the entire thing looked like it would collapse... Leave it to me to almost break the BeiJing zoo.

After that?  Not much... Adrian left and the two of us went to a hibachi place for dinner...  It was so much the same as home, and so much different.  For instance, most of us go to hibachi not for the amazingly delicious food....  We can make much better tasting food at a much more reasonable price in our own kitchens.  In China?  They sit you down around a cooking grill and then.... cook your food elsewhere and bring it to you.. What the f***?  I mean, our meal was only like $40, but that is a lot here and I WANTED the show... apparently not in BeiJing.  With that said, where in America have you gotten Caviar atop some fancy egg thing that I forgot its name for an appetizer??

And the soup?  In the States, you get water.. with salt in it... maybe some green onions.... and if your LUCKY a mushroom or two...

In China?? Well, I'll let the picture do the talking:

Yes, thats a clam... and shrimp... AND GREEN ONIONS!


All told, for less than the cost of a hibachi dinner in America, we got the above-mentioned, rice, a wierd cucumber and peanut appetizer, plus this:

A plate of vegetables, chicken, beef, pork, steak, and scallops, plus two beers and sake....  Grand Total?  238 yuan, or about $38.  I love China.

That was the end of my night... I have much more to tell you guys, including a story about bungee jumping, but I lack the pictures to back it up and thus, must wait...  I will leave you with the following pictures to whet your appetite though:

Mountains different than any I have ever seen, but beautiful in their own right

There may or may not have been some Bungee off of that platform

I promise, I am jumping... you just can't see my feet.