Soda Drinking Bears and an Irish Pub for Dinner

Yesterday was our free day in Nanjing.  It was another eventful day in China to say the least.  The first thing that we did was head out to the zoo that is in Nanjing.  We walked to the subway, bought our ticket which was only 3 Yuan, and rode the Subway for about 20 minutes to the Zoo (my first subway ride!).  After riding for 20 minutes, we got out and walked for about 10 minutes to get to the zoo.  It's weird, even though I have felt like I have been on Mars this entire trip, I felt even more lost once we landed in this city that the zoo was in.  I don’t think many people there have seen Americans.  I really don’t.  Barely any Americans go to Nanjing, and even less go to the zoo 20 minutes outside of Nanjing.  It’s a good thing we had a group of ten people.

Some dirty Pandas at this zoo.  I would love to realease them.

The zoo was strange.  The people I went with said that it was the worst zoo that they had ever been to and probably the worst they will ever go to.  I didn’t mind it too much, but I must admit, the animals there, and the zoo in general, seemed a bit abandoned. There were not many people in the Zoo at all, and it was so huge that it took about a ten minute walk to go from one animal to the next.  The zoo also had random theme parks in it and things that you would find at the fair.  My friend Hampton went into this little ride that had a bunch of manikins in there killing each other.  He seemed a little scarred after attending this ride that cost him 10 Yuan.  However weird this zoo might have been, I enjoyed all of the animals that were there.  They seemed extremely friendly.  It’s almost mind blowing how friendly they were.

The most intense part of the zoo trip was this encounter we had with the Asian bears (they actually looked Asian). After walking for about ten minutes from seeing the Tigers, Panthers, and Cheetahs, we  arrived to see this Bear and his Bear friend drinking sodas.  They weren’t just drinking the soda, they were grabbing the soda from the people outside of the cage, taking the top off, and chugging like they were human.  Standing on the back legs and everything.  We were viewing from the second story at this time, so we walked down to get a closer view.  I have a bunch of great videos of this that I plan to upload to Youtube at some time.  I think it has the potential to go viral. 

I even got to feed this Bear.  I bought these spicy peanuts on the market earlier in the day that I didn’t really like, so I let the Bears try them.  I would put the peanuts in my hand, stretch through the bars while the Bears stretched through their bars, and let the Bear take the peanuts right out of my hand.  This will most likely be the only time I will ever touch a Bear’s hand again, and this is probably a good thing.  After a few times of feeding him, he grasped my hand like he wanted to take it along with the peanuts.  I had to strain to get my hand out of his strong grip.  I quit feeding him peanuts out of my hand after this ha.  These Bears absolutely loved it.  We were all feeding them, because they might not have eaten for a couple of weeks.  There were no employees to be found at this place.

More cool things happened at the zoo, one of which we watched for a long time.  The most playful monkeys were at this zoo.  They were just like little humans.  I don’t believe in evolution, but after watching these monkeys play and have fun like little kids, I started to feel like I was watching humans play inside of a cage.  Crazy.  We watched these monkeys for about 25 minutes.

At night time we ate at an Irish Pub.  I don’t think anyone on this trip enjoys how the Chinese eat.  I’m not even sure how they have a life expectancy of more than 20 years old.  The food that they eat seems extremely unhealthy and very nutrient lacking.  Some people say that the Chinese are so short because they lack nutrients.  I would have to agree.  So, the Irish Pub was a good choice.  Most of us got burgers, and they were really good.  It was strange being in this Pub.  There was no one in there except us, the Scottish owner, an Irish lady, and a guy that has been in China for a year but is from America.  I figure on a Friday night there would be more people in here, but that obviously was not the case.  I don’t think the Chinese do weekends like we do.  I’ll have to confirm that with someone that knows more about when Chinese relax. Before we left the Pub, about 10 Europeans walked in to the Pub.  Such a weird thing to be around so many Europeans in China.

Bargain Central

Today we head out to Beijing on a Train.  I think we leave around ten tonight and get to Beijing at six in the morning.  We will be discussing some of the companies that we have visited and what commonalties all of these companies have that enter into China.  It should be fun.  We are all excited for Beijing.  My teacher has been talking up this place called the silk market for a while.  She has told a lot of people to wait to do their shopping until the silk market.  It is basically a six story mall that you can bargain at.  I know I’m pumped.  Bargaining is extremely fun and requires skill, all of which we are acquiring.  I will most likely not be back for another week, but I will be journaling a little so that I can post what I have been doing when I get a connection.  Be back soon.