Zoo & Aquarium, Beijing

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The panda pavilion in the zoo is well worth seeing, especially if your China trip does not take you to the pandas' natural habitat near Chengdu.

The pandas' living conditions are spacious and well kept, as befits their international celeb status!

When we were there the Chinese visitors to the panda exhibit were nice and well behaved, and sharing their vocal enthusiasm for every movement of the Gentle Giants was part od the experience.

The best part was when one panda obliged us and climbed a tree (for us, of course), and then remained perched in the tree, munching bamboo shoots.

In short: Go and see the pandas, avoid the rest of the zoo!

Wonderful experience!!!
The Beautiful Ocean Animals, The Touch Place you can touch the starfish and sea cucumber. The Sharks you can see different kinds of sharks. Everyday has Three Perform by sea pigs and lions. The flyer is the best perform.

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Beijing Zoo, situated in the west of Beijing Exhibition Center, was known for a short time after the founding of the People's Republic as the Western Suburbs Park (Xijiao Gongyuan). The grounds combine cultivated flower gardens with stretches of natural scenery, including dense groves of trees, stretches of grassland, a small stream, lotus pools and small hills dotted with pavilions and halls.

there are three parts of Beijing Zoo, East part\ West part\ North part. since the zoo is so big, if you only have few hours to be here, i think West part is better. Panda, penguin, kangaroo, giraffe...are all here. and you can also take boat go to Summer Palace from West part's pier.

So I wanted to see a panda and the best place for that is the Beijing Zoo! You will see them doing their everyday eating of bamboo leaves, moving slowly about and sleeping. But other than the panda, the zoo also has wonderful flower garden and lotus pools. You will enjoy walking around these scenic grounds!

The original name of this zoo. which is located at located in the Xicheng District, was Ten Thousand Animal Garden in 1908. Even during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). plants were cultivated and animals were raised here. Then after the liberation, it was reconstructed and was known as the West Suburb Park. And in 1955, the name became Beijing Zoo.

With over 50,000 square meters to fill, the zoo has collections of the Golden Monkey, the White Bear from the North Pole, kangaroos, zebra, lions, tigers and elephants. All in all, it has a collection of more than 600 types of animal species and more than 7, 000 population of animals! Amazing place!

The Beijing Zoo is also adjacent to the Beijing Aquarium. The ticket price for each includes the other.

The Beijing Aquarium is the largest inland aquarium in the world, and has an Amazon rainforest, a marine mammal pavilion, a shark tank, and a dolphin show

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We only went to the zoo to see the panda bears. The panda bears have their own house and this was one of the more modern buildings. I think the rest of the zoo looked out of date.

Beijing Zoo also contains an aquarium, but I didn't go there so don't know if it's any good.

A crazy story: It was very hot in the zoo the day we went there, and the panda bears didn't move much. A drunk Chinese jumped over the fence and tried to get the panda moving. It worked and he was bitten by one of the bears. Didn't see it, but read about it in the newspaper a couple of days later. Crazy!!!

The Beijing Zoo is more than just pandas. There are endangered endemic species like Golden Monkey, Lesser panda and rare crested ibis which are cranes which has been artificially bred and being reintroduced into the wild.

The zoo is actually like a park with boatings and long walks over bridges and ponds.

Zoo closes at 6pm and security personnel a little bit overzealous in clearing crowd. The indoor snake amphibian house has the lights turned off and causing crowded evacuation.

If you are planning to go the Beijing Zoo, consider going the Beijing Aquarium as you can gain admission to both at a cheaper price. They are located next to each other of course.

The aquarium is not the best in the world but still it is fun to see a large aquarium anywhere for me. There is a seal/dolphin show and large tanks to see sea turtles as well as the Chinese sturgeons.

The only thing is that everything is in Chinese with few basic English information.

It was second visit to the Beijing Zoo. I was glad to see so many pandas. You need to buy another ticket to go into the Panda house besides the Zoo entry.

There were 8 new pandas from Sichuan on exhibit for the Olympic Games.

So there was more pandas at one place other than the Panda reserves in Chengdu and Woolong.

As usual, the pandas are usually sleeping or eating bamboo leaves.