Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Seeing tigers and lions and bears sounds like it would be just another family day at the zoo, right?  Well, not when you’re in Shenzhen, China!  Watching Bears climbing up poles and physically wrestling zoo keepers, monkeys and bears riding bicycles around a horse track, and going on a Tiger tour that consisted of being thrown into a van and driven out into the wild…this was not the family day at the zoo we were expecting…but it sure made for a fun and memorable day, just to add to our China adventure!

Here in Shenzhen, Ben has many friends and contacts who he has known from work for many years.  The company he used to work for is headquartered here, so this is where he used to travel to when he was making his frequent 3-4 week long China trips.  Along the way, he made one good friend in particular, David Hu.  David and his family offered to take us around for the day and they showed such excitement to not only welcoming us into Shenzhen, but also welcoming Amelia as well.  So the day started at the Shenzhen Zoo with David, his wife and their 7 year old boy.  They were so gracious in that they borrowed a van for the day, they welcomed us with gifts upon picking us up at our hotel, and they demanded to pay for our entire day…including our tickets to the zoo, food, toys and ice cream for Liam and a very nice, authentic Chinese dinner.  They are such kind people and they were so in love with Amelia…so much that that they wanted to carry her around the whole day and on numerous occasions, they would take her right from our hands so they could oooh and ahhh at her.  Several times throughout the day I had to “steal” her back because I was missing my daughter. J 

Within the zoo there was a little amusement park, so Amelia went on her first ride.  She’s such a little dare devil - completely different than our super cautious little Liam.  She doesn’t seem afraid of much of anything, which we know can one day mean trouble as she begins jumping off couches and doing stunts at the playground…boy we can just see it now! 

We attended several shows—one was a nice dolphin show, another was a Tiger show that one would find to be a pretty normal circus act.  The third show was the one that really made us remember that “We’re Not in Kansas, or Chicago for that matter”!  These pictures capture only a glimpse of the hilarious, wacky, craziness we witnessed…

The zoo was so beautiful, with all the walkways lined with tall trees.  It’s built along a mountain side, so the hills wore us out, but luckily we were able to take advantage of our second stroller.  Yep, that’s right, we finally caved and bought a second umbrella stroller so our lazy boy Liam could ride in the “city mini” stroller we brought from home.  Having this second stroller has been a life saver though—especially for Ben’s back and shoulders! 

Amelia did so good all day.  We were gone from 9am until 8pm and she didn’t cry even once.  She seems to love to be on-the-go, which is a perfect match for her active Mama!  In the mornings, after having her bottle, she will get her shoes and point to the stroller—showing us she’s ready to go for the day.  We were worried about not getting her back to the hotel for her nap, but unlike her brother that would never sleep anywhere else besides his bed or carseat, Amelia zonked out while being carried in Ben’s arms, and she slept the whole way through the loud, crowded dolphin show. 

The highlight of our day consisted of a small school bus with metal bars, and enormous Tigers in our faces!  We were scurried onto this small van which was enclosed by metal bars.  As we drove out into the wild, we had no idea what we were about to experience.  We were handed long metal sticks with gross slobs of meat at the end of them.  In one blink of an eye, we went from looking at the pretty forest to all of a sudden looking Tigers straight in the eyes!  We thought Liam would be terrified, but he actually really enjoyed it, especially since Tigers are his favorite animal.  We saw Lions along the way, as well as “Ligers”, which is half Lion and half Tiger (or at least this is the Chinese translation).  Amelia seemed un-phased by the whole “Tiger in your face” experience as she sat on David’s lap, seeming more interested in the people around her than the huge animals attacking our van.

Throughout the day, we savored little moments here and there with our little sweet cheeks and Liam, in between the Chinese zoo craziness.

After the zoo, David took us to a place called the Red Forest, which is on the water at the west end of Shenzhen and overlooks some of the northern islands of Hong Kong.  It was such a pretty spot and the boys had fun climbing the rocks and trying to skip stones into the water.  It was cute to see Liam and David’s son Edward interact throughout the day.  Liam was constantly talking to him as if he could understand, but the boy didn’t speak much English, so that it made it pretty entertaining.  Nonetheless, they played together so well and Liam seemed happy just to have another kid to play with outside of his parents and his baby sister.

It was such a fun, memorable day and we are so touched by how generous and kind David and his family were to all of us – they sure made us feel welcomed here in Shenzhen.  By the time we got back to our hotel room though, we were pooped, and so was our little sweet cheeks Amelia.  We went to bed that night thinking about all of the fun days at the zoo that lay ahead for our family...but as we drifted off to sleep, all we could see were Lions and Tigers and Bears (on bicycles), Oh MY!!!!!!