hi guys!I'm now in Guangzhou and I will visit Chimelong safari park ,one of the best zoo in China today.I will take lots of photos and ready for a review that will probably create in January ！
Chimelong safari park visit Part 1: Background and entrance. Oh Chimelong. The zoo in China which is famous among Chinese zoolovers. Different people have different opinions on it. Some say it’s good, some say it’s bad. But anyway….. Chimelong is a Chinese company that owns and operates theme parks in China. Their main theme parks is in two cities (and one opening soon), Guangzhou and Zhuhai, as well as Qinyuan Chimelong that will open on 2019. Of course, Chimelong doesn’t only operate zoos, they also operate an ordinary theme park (Chimelong Paradise), a circus (Chimelong circus), a water park (Chimelong water park), as well as dozens of hotels. For animal attractions, Chimelong have three of them. Chimelong birds park, Chimelong ocean kingdom, as well as my favourite, Chimelong safari park. Chimelong safari park opens in 1997, and is now 20 years old. Over the years, they have reproduced a lot of rarities, including the world only panda triplets and koala twins. (I don’t know if the latter is true, there must be some in Australia?) The zoo is pretty expensive, at 250yuan per person. (Other Chinese zoos only have 20-50 yuan admission fee) However, they are now doing a promotion “Buy 2 get 1 free”. As a result, my parents and I decided to go there. The zoo is easy to access, as the Guangzhou Metro can get to Chimelong. Then you can change a free shuttle bus to the zoo’s entrance or walk eight minutes. I took a high-speed train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou and get to there, just after an hour. I didn’t go to the zoo afterwards, as I arrived at Guangzhou at 2 pm, so I booked a hotel and stayed at Guangzhou. The second day I went to the zoo. The zoo has some interesting decorations around the entrance, and the entrance look like this: The banner below said “Congratulations for Chimelong safari park 20th anniversary” and same as above.The middle red word is “Guangzhou Chimelong safari park”. As we enter, it is the begin of the zoo. This zoo is quite big( I have been in there for the whole day,10:00-6:30), so bear with me(no pun intended, just a transition to part 2)
Looking forward to the in-depth review and the most notable species and exhibits. Any updates on endangered species (black-shanked douc, southern black rhino - ... they also have easterns now ex Japan - et cetera) and new developments is also very much welcomed.
Both of them are not on exhibit sadly.The douc is off exhibit since the redevelopment of the old primate kingdom,and the black rhino have all been removed off exhibit or go to Qinyuan.
Part 2: First exhibit and chimps (I want to have a TLD style review, but it’s my first time doing this so I probably done it badly.) Entering the zoo, first we can see is the flamingo exhibit, which hold quite a big flock of flamingo. The path then branch into two, the left just round the exhibit, and the right to the so-call “bear forest”. I took the right side. Going up a little bit, we first saw the signage before the exhibit. The signage is quite good in general, and I didn’t go through it too much of the details. As I can see, the basics are there. Name, photo, scientific name, range, and some facts. One thing that is missing is the subspecies. The “bear forest” actually isn’t a forest. Most of the exhibit is actually concrete, which is not a good idea. The left side have some natural dirt and soil, but that’s it. The middle of the exhibit is concrete on land. But except of this, I think the other is ok. Especially in Asia, lots of bear exhibit is the traditional “grotto” style, where it is full concrete, a small waterhole (or even none), and nothing. Some zoos even put them in a cage with nothing inside. Chimelong’s exhibit is pretty good if you consider others. The front side of the exhibit is water, and the water is deep enough for the bear. Also, there is underwater viewing for the bear. I have seen polar bear exhibit with underwater viewing, but for brown bear, it is my first one. The bear in the exhibit is brown bear (Ursus arctos). When I was there, there is the performance “Bear diving”. Basically the zookeepers throw some food in the water and the bear jumps into it. The lady talking about the bear said they are the Europe subspecies, which I think she mean Ursus arctos arctos. But as you can see from the photo above, there is clearly two different subspecies, but I don’t know what the second subspecies is. They actually have at least 6 bears in the exhibit, but I think the exhibit is big enough (maybe a little small, compare to European standard) for them. I quite like the underwater viewing for them, as people can know about how the bear swim, and the educator also talk about some meaningful information. Moving out of the bear exhibit, we then came into an interesting building. The building was named “Jungle discovery”. As we entered the building, we soon found out that it is not an exhibit housing jungle species, but a “backstage” kind of thing. The building has lots of different room for caring the animals, including the CT room, the operating room, and the incubation room. There is some live chicks in the incubation room sort-of-thing, and when we’re there, there were parrot chicks and swan chicks. Sadly I didn’t take any photo of them, but I think this is actually quite a good education thing. Just like some zoos will have the kitchen for animals on “exhibit”, Chimelong have the “animal hospital and nursery room” kind-of-thing on. This let the people know more about how the zoo operate, and what will the zoo do if the animals are sick. At the end of the building, there is two live exhibit. Both are tank you will find in a pet shop. One for African pygmy hedgehog(Atelerix albiventris), and the other for Madagascar hissing cockroach(Gromphadorhina portentosa). (and also green-winged macaw on a stick).As both of them are common species, I took a quick look at them and went out of the building. We then reach the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) exhibit. The chimpanzee exhibit is on an island, which is divided by two. One has a lone chimp, and the other have some young one. I guess they divided it because the male is aggressive. (?) The exhibit is very good (I think). For the chimps, there is enough space, there are climbing facilities, and the exhibit is full of green. There are grass on the floor, and there are trees for them to climb. When I was there, the lone chimp isn’t very active, but the young are. As you can see, the exhibit is rather natural, with lots of climbing opportunities. I think the hammock is “unnatural”, they can rather plant more trees. But the chimp definitely enjoy the exhibit! The chimps are swinging through the ropes as what they are doing in the photo, climbing up the trees. They can climb freely, and there isn’t hotwire fencing them. Of course, they can improve better, but I think this exhibit is on very high standard and very suitable for the chimps. Moving on, the next part will be....(drumroll).....Mandrill and African show!
Sorry for the long wait. I just have my exam and I need to work hard on it. Now the exam is gone, I will finish this thread! I hope that i can finish this before 10th February, so i really need to write faster!
I read your review with great interest. Please take all the time you need. But don´t forget us! Do you have a photo of the flamingo entrance exhibit? Or could you decribe it - both the exhibit and birds in it (species, breeding, pinioned or not etc.).
Part 3: Mandrill and African show After seeing the chimps, we went backwards to the mandrill exhibit. But before the mandrill exhibit, there are two water exhibits on the left of the mandrill exhibit. Judging from previous map, these two exhibits once held sea turtle and seals, but they are gone now (I’m glad). Both of them are similar in size, and have underwater viewing for both. The one on the back is just an ordinary freshwater tank, and hold unlabeled fish which I don’t photograph. The other one holds something much different. This exhibit is for a mix of American paddlefish(Polyodon spathula), common pochard(Aythya ferina)(label as ferina duck) and mandarin duck(Aix galericulata). This is rather a strange mix, I would agree. Anyway, the exhibit has underwater viewing for the fish, and there are some logs and rocks for them. I don’t found anything interesting here and I have no comment about the exhibit. (Because as I know, these two tanks always change and these ducks are probably temporarily here) Moving on to right, there is another island. This island, although not as massive and beautiful as the chimps, still have some trees and natural plants for the inhabitants. This island holds Mandrill(Mandrillus sphinx).Although their space isn’t big, it still provide climbing opportunities for the mandrills.The male is in another island, where as the female and the juvenile is on the other. They can have good use of the exhibit if they want, but when I was visit, they aren't using the whole exhibit, but certainly, they can climb higher and natural-er than it's cousin in other chinese zoos if they want. Moving out the Mandrill exhibit, I saw a lot of people rushing to the African show so I went to see it. But first, we came across an exhibit for meerkat(Suricata suricatta). The meerkat exhibit is ordinary and not much thing special .Consider that meerkat is a common species, I skip it and went to have a seat for the African show. I decide this show rather than the elephant one because this show is a “animal behavior show”, rather than a “cruel show” like the elephant one.The show first start with some interaction to the audience. You know, asking some questions about animals. Then, there is a flock of flamingo(at least 30) going on the stage. The show is informative and the speaker can provide at least some facts about the animals. However, the show is not so “exciting” than the not-so-informative one, as the animals have done something, but not much. Basically they let the animal running around the stage rather in there exhibit. The interaction with visitors is better and the speaker ask people to get down the stage to feed the giraffe. Also, she also ask question about the animals and said informative things. The show have the species below: Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) Chilean flamingo(Phoenicopterus chilensis)(don’t ask why) griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) Meerkat(Suricata suricatta) Cormorant(Phalacrocorax ssp.) Ring tailed lemur(Lemur catta) Marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) Common ostrich(Struthio camelus) giraffe(Giraffa sp.) After finishing the show, we continue to tour the zoo…… in the sky.
Chimelong opened up its cable car in the zoo back in 2017. Now the cable car is free of charge, and I decide to get up on it and view the whole zoo in the sky. The cable car is basically a loop through the zoo, and is not charge because of the 20th anniversary of the zoo. I get up at Meng Meng station, the station near the South gate, and began the route to Cool Cool Station. The first exhibit we can see up high is….. the panda exhibit. The panda exhibit is actually quite large, and have some climbing facility( this exhibit will get another view at the end of the visit) The second exhibit is the koala(Phascolarctos cinereus) one. The koala is so small up high that I didn’t realize there’s a koala until I zoom in the photo! The “sky” koala exhibit is quite strange, and I don’t remember seeing it in the ground. It’s like a farmland and the koala are climbing on the branch that’s on the farm. Again, there is another exhibit for the koala, but this exhibit is only see in here. The third exhibit is…. Giant panda(Ailuropoda melanoleuca) exhibit No.2. This exhibit is stranger than the koala one, and is build along a hill. Named “hilltop panda” on the map, it’s really a part of the hill, the slope that panda live. There is a wooden table for them, the exhibit is build on a slope which provide them a real habitat( Panda live in mountainous area in reality) However, there are already a exhibit for panda, and this exhibit is sort of a waste. There are many more animal in mountanious region, such as bharal, mountain goat, ibex…..This exhibit can be good for others animal that used to slope, and panda again? I know chimelong is fond of panda, but that’s too much that I think it’s a waste of land. Then we reach the “cool cool station”, which mark the beginning of the “safari/self-driving zone”. The first zone is African Savannah(again I will reach the safari area in part 6) and is home to a lot of animals. I won’t describe it greatly here, as part 6 will be boring if I have. Just a photo for spoiler From the “cool cool station” to “Shai Shai Station” is the safari area view up high. As I mentioned, except seeing the whole exhibit, there isn’t much to see. I think viewing up on the cable car isn’t as good as viewing on the ground. The animal are so small and you can’t see them clearly. Anyway, here is a photo of elephant exhibit view up high. At last, we take back from “shai shai station” to “Meng Meng Station”. This route is the most boring one, and the only highlight are the big swan lake which holds black swan(Cygnus atratus), black-necked swan (Cygnus melancoryphus), White swan and great white pelican(Pelecanus onocrotalus). The swan lake is so big that it’s kind of a waste of land. Half of the size will be enough and the other half can be used to make more exhibit for other animals. (This photo still didn't show the whole lake,there's still some not in the photo) And that’s it. There’s nothing special about the cable car and except seeing the whole exhibit, this method didn’t provide close up to the animal and I’m not really fond of it. The animal is so small from above that all of the kangaroos look like rabbits!Of course, seeing a giraffe or an elephant from the sky is a experience, but I rather walk along the enclosure and seeing them closely and slowly.
Unfortunately my computer's hard disk is broken and all of my photos about chimelong have gone. So this thread will be stopped until i can recall the photo from the old hard disk. So sorry for this. If I can't recall all the photo, I may just use the photo I post on zoochat.
