World China Guangdong Guangzhou

Lin's China Travels 2005/2006

Trip to Guangzhou Zoo Jan 8, 2006

I had a 'bright and early' start to the day. It is FREEZING.....well almost. I caught a taxi at 7.30, in order to be at the Sunflower Centre by 7.45, for an 8am departure to Guangzhou, to visit the zoo. There were about 30 children in the party, and their ages range from 6 to 14 or so, and two teachers, Winnie and Rachel, three parents, and myself. There was also a young guy, who is a tour guide for the travel agent that Winnie used to book the trip.

Winnie made sure that she had phone contacts for all the students, as our return time was not able to be very concrete.

So, in the typical casual Chinese way, we eventually had everyone on the bus and we set off by about 8.15. We were all issued with peaked caps, which are useful, to distinguish from any other tours that may be there on the same day. The drive to Guangzhou is about 2 hours normally, and thankfully this trip was one of the 'normal' ones. There can be hideous delays, if there is an accident, break-down, or any of a myriad of reasons for a traffic jam!!

We arrived at the main entrance the the Guangzhou zoo, and had to line up all the kids, do a roll call. And then we headed in to see the animals. Well, actually, the first stop was a loo stop, and then we headed off to see the big cats.

I will, from now on, always try to remember how very lucky our zoo animals are, and also how lucky we, as visitors are. The weather was very cold (max 8C) which of course, made the animals less active than they might have been. But, the worst is, they are nearly all housed in concrete cages, just like we used to have 30 - 40 years ago. The zoo I was so looking forward to, as I had heard how good it is, was very disappointing, and quite depressing. One solitary elephant, stood in his enclosure, had the saddest eyes, and it was as if you could read his mind. Poor thing. And the giant panda, which I thought was to be the highlight for me, was curled up in a corner of his enclosure, and did not move a muscle, so it was very hard to get an idea of his size, and beauty!

We walked around for about two hours, and then went to a restaurant within the zoo for lunch, and then got everyone together again, and headed back to the bus.

We left the zoo, and headed through GZ, to go and have a look at GZ'z University City. This is an area, to the south east of the city, and it is like a satellite city, with over twenty universities in the area. It is staggering in the extent of the place. It is obvious that the Chinese put much emphasis on the value of education.

After a fifteen minute or so break, we got back on the bus to head for home. I went to sleep, as we left University City, as I had a very loud little girl sat next to me, and if I appeared awake, she insisted on giving me a running commentary on what we were passing........all in Chinese, and VERY loud. So going to sleep provided a welcome escape! I slept for about an hour for a start, and when I woke up I thought that at least we must be half way home! But no, we were just getting into the centre of GZ, there were traffic jams all around, and it took about an hour and a half in total, just to get onto the espressway which leads back to Zhaoqing!!

We got back to the Sunflower Centre at about 5.30pm, and then all the students had to take it in turn to phone their parents, to get picked up. Some of them are pretty unbelievable, they seem to have no idea that the ones who took their children out for the day, might want to get home themselves!! When they came to collect kids, they invariably stood around chatting, even Winnie was getting impatient. And it seemed to be getting colder and colder!! When we FINALLY got rid of the last of them, we went to her house to have something to eat, as Liao had been cooking, and at about 8.30 I headed for my apartment. I was so glad to get home, and get into bed. My head was aching. I think part of it was from the cold, but being in the company of 30 screaming kids for the day didn't help.