My daughter loves books. At first, she always asked me to tell her the stories inside them, but now she has reached the stage where she can retell them to me in her own way. Lately she has been especially fond of the Qiaohu series, and one issue she kept returning to was Little Animal Keeper. It was filled with cartoon animals alongside real photographs, and before long she could recognize every animal in it. That was what gave me the idea: instead of only seeing them on the page, why not take her to meet them in real life?
The moment she heard we were going to the zoo, she started talking about it every day. So last Sunday, my wife and I took both kids to Shanghai Wild Animal Park.
We got ready the day before, packing plenty of snacks and drinks and bringing along a picnic mat. I also downloaded the park’s app so we could check information inside the grounds more easily.
Sunday turned out to be perfect zoo weather: blue sky, white clouds, bright sunshine. We arrived by car at around 9:30 in the morning.
The first thing to do, of course, was take a photo at the entrance.
Entry was done with ID cards. Right inside stood a huge globe sculpture, with a stage behind it where a group of foreign performers of different skin tones were dancing. Off to the left was a bronze elephant sculpture. The children immediately climbed onto the little elephant beside it; its ears and back had already been polished smooth by countless small hands.
We followed the path to the flamingo area first. There were white, red, and pink flamingos, and because my daughter already knew them from her book, she recognized them instantly and shouted, delighted, “Flamingos! Flamingos!”
From there we moved left with the crowd into the “Big Beak Corridor,” where several birds with impressive beaks were on display: red-billed toucans, whip toucans, macaws, and wreathed hornbills. One of the hornbills had such a dramatic head shape that it looked like a rock singer with a wild hairstyle.
Soon we reached Tianhe Lake. Black and white swans glided across the water, and many visitors were feeding them. The swans were clearly used to people and showed no fear at all. My son and daughter took out some bread and joined in. At first my daughter crouched a little farther away, nervous about getting too close, but once she realized the swans were gentle, she inched nearer and started enjoying herself.
After that we queued for the safari bus to see the large animals and predators.
From the bus we passed deer, red-crowned cranes, camels, ponies, yaks, antelope, zebras, white rhinos, giraffes, cheetahs, lions, brown bears, tigers, white tigers, wolves, and sun bears. Every time my daughter spotted a new animal, she would greet it with the same simple sentence: “Hello, giraffe, I’m here,” or whatever animal was in front of her. That became her own little way of speaking to them.
Most of the animals were either strolling about or basking in the sun, looking quite relaxed in their surroundings.
By the time we got off the bus it was close to noon. We had a quick snack on benches near the station, then made our way to the Sea Lion Theater before 12:30 for the show. It was lively and entertaining, and the sea lions were impressively clever, especially when they spun in the air. My daughter, however, had reached naptime. After only a few minutes of watching, she started nodding off and soon fell asleep on my shoulder.
After the show we crossed the Swan Lake Bridge. Under the blue sky and drifting clouds, the view was especially pleasant. Below the bridge was the penguin house, home to Magellanic penguins. They were small and lively, and some of them darted through the water with their tails flicking behind them.
Next door was a wetland area for cranes and other birds, including red-crowned cranes, crowned cranes, night herons, white storks, and cormorants. The cormorants turned out to be unexpectedly fun to watch. They would pick up branches that had fallen into the water and carry them back to shore for nest building. The children soon joined the game by tossing twigs into the water, which set off little scrambles between the birds.
Nearby, the cheetahs in the cheetah enclosure were stretched out in the sunshine with half-closed eyes, completely uninterested in the visitors on the other side of the glass.
Then came the stop we had really been waiting for: the panda house. I woke my daughter up for it. Several giant pandas were each settled in their own corners. One detail impossible to forget was seeing a fresh pile of panda droppings, which gave off a faint bamboo scent.
Beside the panda area was the giraffe enclosure. We saw other visitors feeding giraffes, and my daughter was eager to try too. But when our turn came and a giraffe stretched out its long tongue to curl around the branch, she got scared at once. She would not put out her hand, would not even look directly at it, and hid tightly in my arms instead. In the end, most of the feeding was done by her brother.
There were also kangaroos and alpacas nearby, with close-up feeding areas for visitors.
After making a big loop through the park, the children were hungry again, so we found a place by Swan Lake for a picnic. Many families had set up tents there. We spread out our mat, laid out the snacks, and let the kids enjoy their little feast. Once they were done, my son picked up some bread and went back to feeding the swans. As crumbs landed on the water, the birds gradually gathered around.
In the afternoon we kept walking and came across Malayan tapirs and hippos. I had learned about tapirs from the TV drama Escape from the Trilateral Slopes, and the ones here looked a bit larger than I had imagined from the show. The hippos stayed in the water the entire time. The children really wanted to see one open its huge mouth, but even after waiting quite a while, it never happened, which left them a little disappointed.
At one small bridge we paused to enjoy the view. The clouds overhead looked like white horses running through the sky and then turning back with a cry.
We went on to the African elephant area, with the Asian elephants across from it. The African elephants were obviously larger. Zebras were nearby as well.
When we reached the Beast Mountain Theater, the performance there was already almost over. Later we learned there was another show at 15:15, even though the app only listed the 14:15 session.
Next to the theater was a feeding area set up for flamingos, where visitors could observe them from close range. Standing on one leg, they looked astonishingly steady. Not far away was a capybara zone where people could feed the animals. With their short legs, round bodies, and absent-mindedly cute expressions, they looked like oversized hamsters.
From there we headed into Monkey World, home to many different kinds of monkeys.
At the tiger pounce area there was a pool, artificial rocks, wooden posts, and a feeding device designed for demonstrations, but we had missed the scheduled feeding show. The tigers looked slimmer than I had expected, not quite as powerfully built as in my imagination.
At Crocodile Beach, large numbers of crocodiles lay still on the ground, so motionless that they almost looked fake. Only the ones in the water moved from time to time.
The brown bears in Brown Bear Water World wandered leisurely along the edge of the water.
As evening began to fall, we slowly started heading toward the exit. On the way we passed Flying Bear Villa, where a group of little black bears kept slapping at the iron gate as if announcing, “Work’s over, work’s over.” Nearby was a raccoon enclosure, where a sign hanging from a pole caught everyone’s attention because it read “Crunchy Noodles for Foodies,” instantly bringing back memories of the little raccoon instant snacks that used to be so popular in childhood, especially the Water Margin hero cards inside.
Just beyond that was the red panda area. The red pandas were lively and unwilling to settle down. A keeper tried to coax them back into their den for rest, but they kept running in and out until they were finally cornered and had no choice but to go back in.
As the sun went down, more and more animals were returning to their shelters for the night, and the children were reluctant to say goodbye to this kingdom of animals, laughter, and surprise.
On the drive home, both kids fell fast asleep in the back seat, tired out from the day, with deeply satisfied expressions on their faces.
Shanghai Wild Animal Park really is a wonderful place for a family outing.