The animals that stood out the most where, of course, the panda; then the golden monkeys, a huge chimpanzee, tigers, rhinos, and last, but not least, the terrifying Pomeranian dogs, yes dogs. They actually had a couple of domesticated dog breeds in the zoo, in cages, wild isn’t it.

They also had several breeds of deer, squirrels, raccoons, etc. We paid extra for one of the shows, about $1 U.S. each, where we saw bears and monkeys riding bikes, and dogs and bears walking on balls.

The grande finale was a snake lady, a female’s head with a snake’s body. We didn’t know there was such an animal!

The kids’ highlight was when they were able to go into the monkey’s cage and feed them. They actually paid the extra money for this out of their own pockets...

... According to Graham, “worth every penny,” (or yuan) - of course it was only $1.30 U.S.

After several hours in the zoo, we ate lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. The food was VERY spicy, especially the Kung Pow Chicken. We renamed it “Kung Pow, Pow Chicken.”

Later that day we took the kids swimming and then to the local park where we played frisbee with 4 adventurous Chinese boys. They actually did a great job with throwing the frisbee, especially since none of them had ever seen one before.

Jarrett tried to teach them how to pronounce “frisbee” in English several times, which was sweet to hear them TRY. Steve, Coleman, Graham and Jarrett loved playing with the local kids, it was definitely a highlight for them, you could tell by the major sweat they worked up.