First things first – we are claiming today as Nadia’s first sentence day. I was taking some video at the aquarium and when I walked back over to Mike and Nadia she said, “Hi Mama!” Is that cute or what? I guess I should also take this time to say that Nadia’s speaking has just exploded in the last week. She is really saying a large variety of words now and can identify many more things. It’s a relief when she is hungry and thirsty that she can actually answer us now about which item she wants. For example, “Do you want rice? Or yogurt?” She will nod or say “No” now, which is really great. Then we are not trying to give her stuff that she is just not interested in at the moment. It’s really cute all the new words she is saying and how she is associating sounds with objects and photos. I am also convinced that she has gotten taller since we got here based on how her clothes are fitting.
Today we relaxed at home in the morning and then after Nadia’s nap we got ready to go. Nancy from the school met us on the bottom floor of our apartment building and we caught a cab over to the Beijing Zoo. We also wanted to see the Aquarium in the zoo, which they claim is the world’s largest in-land aquarium. We got to the zoo and while waiting to buy tickets this lady came up and put this cool pinwheel in Nadia’s hand. Nice salesmanship, right? Nadia probably would not have been upset if we took it away, but it was very cute, so I asked the lady how much. She said 5 kuai which is about $0.70. So I gave her the money. All the Chinese behind me probably paid less, but I wasn’t worried about it. I should also say that I asked 3 different Beijingers if they had been to the aquarium and they all told me, “No, it’s too expensive.” It’s $14 a person, but it’s only $1.40 to get in the zoo. Mike and I expected it to be great because $14 to get in to something in Beijing is pretty steep from what we have seen.
We went into the zoo and looked at some of the animals on our way to the aquarium. We needed to get in there and get seats for the dolphin and seal show at least half an hour early. They had some pretty cool birds at the zoo that I have never seen before. Some had the most gorgeous colored feathers. We also saw the red pandas that aren’t really pandas. Nancy said that the character for them is little panda. They looked like reddish raccoons to me and they were so cute! We also saw some beautiful tigers and female lions. There was also a jaguar that was making a whole lot of noise, but he was really pretty. Nadia wasn’t really aware of what was going on during this part, but she was having a great old time waving to other kids and playing with her pinwheel. We saw the use of the split pants walking through the zoo. Many people just had their kids walk up to a tree or the grassy area and go.
We got to the aquarium and had time to go through the Rainforest section of it on our way to the pavilion for the show. There were a lot of cool looking fish in there and we have the photos to prove it. We got in for the show and there were a lot of people already seated and ready to go. We saw a bunch of kids with these LED dolphins and star fish and Mike thought Nadia would like one, so I ran down to grab her one. Of course she liked it. And she immediately found the button on the back to make it work. It came on a Beijing Zoo lanyard and you can change the batteries. Very, very cute for a souvenir. Once the show got started it kept Nadia’s attention on and off. She is not quite old enough to appreciate how cool it was, but big enough to watch the flashy parts. She got very interested in the people in front and behind us though. At this point waving at people is more exciting that dolphins and seals.
I really enjoyed the show and Mike got some amazing shots and I took some really good videos. I think once we are home I will try my hand at the Movie Maker software and make an aquarium movie. I really wanted to see the dolphins, they have a special place in my heart since Jess and I swam with one back in 2003. These three dolphins were really big! It reminded me a lot of Sea World, but not quite as flashy. And we couldn’t understand anything that they were saying. Nancy translated some of the jokes for us, but otherwise we were just observing the show. The seals came on next and they did some very cute tricks that really entertained the crowd. They also seemed like really big seals compared to ones I have seen at other zoos. After the show ended we looked through the other parts of the aquarium and the biggest part was the coral reef section. They had tons and tons of beautiful fish in there. I really enjoyed getting to see the wonderful displays that they had and all the colorful fish.
We left the aquarium and wandered over to see the elephant house. Now I am by no means an animal rights activist, but now I understand why I have heard people complain about the housing of the animals at the Beijing zoo (except for the Pandas). The elephants were really in some small rooms when you consider the size of them. The tigers were also in small cages, but there was an area for the tigers and lions to go out in where people could look down and watch them run around. After the elephants, we walked over to see the Pandas. They are really cute, but very lazy since all they do is eat all day. Each little area just had one panda and a boatload of bamboo for them to eat. The little baby panda was sleeping, but the other two were eating and eating and eating. In the gift shop I got the cutest Panda umbrella and some post cards. After the panda we tried to see Monkey Hill, but an employee told us it was gone. It was 5 pm by then so we called it a day and took a taxi back to the apartment.
Here is Nancy, Nadia and I with the Panda Umbrella.
