Siberian tigers

Mark arrived from Beijing last night after a 2 hour delay. We only bad a brief chat then, so I had a better catch up with him over breakfast.

We had planned on going to the Siberian Tiger Park and there was no reason to change the plan. The hotel taxi drivers were around and when we enquired, they quoted CNY200. All three of us didn’t think too much about it and it was a consensus to go along with it. Once there, we thought it was a bit much for the distance but with the waiting time and the risk of not having taxis readily available at the far end, it probably was the right thing to do.

Along the way, the driver offered to take us to the pools where people would be taking icy dips/swims. We declined; it was another way for him to make money from selling the tickets.

We were taken around the Tiger Park in a minibus. There were a good number of Siberian Tigers including some albinos running around. There were more in cages though. The van didn’t pause enough for us to fully appreciate them and capture their beauty on camera.

The minibus moved from one tiger zone to another, each one separated by double gates controlled by the watchhouse. Strangely, there was a lion enclosure between the various tiger zones. Unlike Siberian tigers, lions aren’t meant to be in these harsh winters.

Towards the end, we were dropped at a long elevated fence walkway where we could observe at our own pace. There were live chickens on sale for those who wanted to chuck one down and see them being eaten. A couple of people coughed up a little bit of dough to feed them. I’ve seen menus on the internet offering live cows etc but perhaps they’re probably presented only to the richer crowd.

Near the end of the walkway there were some other members of the cat family, eg. panthers, a liger, lions and a white lion.

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Our driver dropped us back at the hotel. After a short rest, we tried to hail a cab for the Japanese Germ Warfare Experimental Base. We couldn’t for the life of us find a vacant taxi and we were running out of time; the base has an early closing time. The skies had clouded over and it was starting to snow.

Despite the cold and the dusting of snow, we walked down the pedestrian mall to the river. We then took refuge in a delightful cafe called the Simeng. It was decorated with bears, books, toys and Christmas ornaments. It felt very Austrian/European and Japanese (ie. Japanese faux-European) at the same time, if you know what that means.

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We had dinner at a Russian restaurant which was decidedly expensive by Chinese standards. Walking back afterwards, we couldn’t believe was that with the -30 degC weather and light snow, the pedestrian mall was buzzing. And the number of people buying ice-cream far exceeded those buying hot snacks like sausages!