Guangzhou crocodile park renamed into Chimelong bird park. News | Chimelong Birds Park | Guangzhou Chimelong Tourist Resort
One might assume that, given the Chimelong brand, this zoo would be rather good. Even though I knew some of the context I am about to share, I was kind of expecting a really good bird park; not a Jurong necessarily, but perhaps a Kuala Lumpur. In fact, Chimelong is really poor, and the photos I have uploaded will show why. Note in particular that as well as various distasteful practices and enclosures that can be seen in the gallery, there is something surprising missing: aviaries. This is almost an oxymoron, an aviaryless bird park. Why is this? Chimelong Birds Park - ZooChat This zoo used, I believe, to be Guangzhou Reptile Park. It was not under the Chimelong umbrella and it was not focused on birds, although it may always have had some. This is why the current 'bird' park has a large reptile house, a huge crocodile lake and a fairly appalling crocodile show. Why it has a large herd of hippos and a decent small mammal collection is somewhat less clear. I do not know whether it first became a bird park, and then became a Chimelong park. I certainly hope so. Almost all the birds are wing-clipped or pinioned and kept in open-topped, and small, exhibits. I am not confident that there are no birds on sticks at Chimelong Safari, indeed I seem to remember at least some posing parrots (as can also be found at Jurong), but nothing on this scale. Chimelong seem to trade on the fact that they are way ahead of the curve as a Chinese zoo; this is broadly true although there is plenty to discuss there. It's confusing why they would take on this zoo given how far below their standards it is, but it is worthy of condemnation that they did not immediately clean house and rebuild it from the bottom up. It's relatively hard to reach Chimelong Bird Park by public transport; this is in stark contrast to the Safari and Ocean Kingdom. I suspect I was the only visitor who did not either arrive by car or tour bus. I am not sure what that means but it seems to be worthy of comment. This is not a good place. I can only imagine it will improve, and there may well be a few interesting species that might draw a zoonerd. What must be stressed though, is that visitors to Guangzhou should not reflexively visit this place. There are many better zoos in China, and in Asia, and I would suggest you spend your time and money in them instead. I acknowledge that I am exhibiting rank hypocrisy given that I wouldn't urge you not to visit Chengdu Zanhuayuan, but Chimelong really should know better.
In 2017 reviews still refer to it as Crocopark, but mention the number of birds. So it seems that calling it Birds Park was more of a shift in marketing than actual collection emphasis. I will make some inquiries about when Chimelong took ownership of the park.
I moved to the area (Hong Kong) in 2013, and at that time the Chimelong Resort website was divided into Chimelong Paradise (theme park), Chimelong Water Park, Chimelong Safari Park, Chimelong International Circus and Chimelong Crocodile Park. As you noted, that last one is actually around a half-hour drive from the rest of the resort, but Chimelong definitely bought/operated it as "Crocodile Park" under their brand for at least a couple of years. No idea when it switched exactly, but it's fairly recent. You're right about the birds at Chimelong Safari as well. I went quite recently, and there are very few (none?) aviaries - the birds are all out in the open and very close to visitors.
There is the large walkthrough aviary in the Forest Section. I am going through my photos right now and I don't see (or remember) all that many birds at all.
So a few useful things are emerging from this thread. The main one is that Chimelong group is certainly responsible for the current state of the park. Another small point is that there is actually a shuttle bus from the nearest metro station to Birds Park, I just didn't know about it.
I remember visiting Chimelong crocodile park when I was small(2010 before). The crocodile show include one people put it's head inside the mouth of the crocodile. I also remember they have hippo but little more than that. I haven't visit there since then, but I've heard they have crested ibis. Do you see them?
