Wildlife Park Revisited

Google Photos reminded me that 13 years ago we took Aidan and Lydia to the Badaling Wildlife Park. My memory reminded me of a few other things that day. The caged white bus that we sat on. Passing locked gates into the animal habitats. First a wolf. Then another gate. Lions. A live chicken thrown out the vent in the top of the bus and the lions come pouncing. Paws slam on the bus windows. Chicken gone, looking for more. Me thinking this might not have been the best trip for Aidan, then four, or Lydia, then three. Past the lions there were bears. The bears looked worn. I'm sure others but I really remember the wolf, the lions, and the bears. Later during the walking section we saw people staring down a 25 foot high wall at lions below. They lions looked up eagerly and sometimes jumped. Not at the people. At the chickens extended at the end of sticks like a fishing pole.

You can also drive your own car through the wildlife park. A couple of years back a woman got out of her car for just a moment and a lion seized her and dragged her off camera. The video made the rounds on social media.

So with that as a setup, Sabrina announced that we would take Elisa to the wildlife park with Sabrina's sister and Sabrina's niece. Great, I thought.  Some things were the same as 2007. I had no idea, no control of what the experience would be like. I just went and was directed. I was the only foreigner there, besides Elisa. People wanted to feed and touch the animals. A dad made a joke about about feeding his yummy tasting baby to a tiger. But, mostly, it turned not to be anything like 2007. It was in south Beijing. It was clean and well maintained. The animals and workers looked well taken care of. While it was crowded and social distance wasn't always respected, people formed lines. Elisa enjoyed it, as opposed to being traumatized. And for me, it reminded me how much Beijing has changed since I moved here 15 years ago. In some ways it was more interesting then. Or was that just me.