Last Day in Nanjing

It was our last day in Nanjing and also the last day for some of the Chinese people at the studio who are being sent to Shanghai along with us, so we all went out together to what we thought was Nanjing Zoo. When we got there, there was a lot more than a zoo!

 This place was far outside Nanjing so we had to be up early to meet Ono and Dumpling at our studio to get the subway to the bus that would take us to the ‘zoo’. At the bus stop there were lots of people and as soon as the bus pulled up everyone ran to get on board. It was completely crazy. Only other time I’ve seen that was when I met Avril Lavigne! It was honestly like a celebrity had showed up and everyone wanted a feel! The reason everyone wanted on first so badly was because the journey was over an hour long and you don’t want to be standing up that whole time…like we did. 

Matt, Nicola, Alex, Ono, Dumpling, Moon, Colour, Jenny, Macy, Animo, Animo’s ‘girl’, Aaron, Aaron’s wife and I all arrived at the zoo. Turns out the ‘zoo’ is a lot more. 

The Chinese people had brought lots of food for a BBQ, we figured it was just an us thing that we would do, like you would have BBQs on the beach in Bournemouth or in the park at Stormont but there was a massive BBQ area where dozens of people could have their own BBQ. 

Before we cooked and ate we went on the many rides the ‘zoo’ had to offer. There was a large fairground located here, with a rollercoaster, dodgems, swing thing, shaker thing and other rides I can’t name. 

Animo getting competitive! 

High speed collision? Not so much...

 

So we each forked out 120 Yuan unexpectedly to go on all these rides but it was bloody fun. Of course Matt got sick! He was the only one however, the swing thing took it out of everyone. 

While the rest of us were feeling a bit nauseous Nicola and Moon went on the suspen

ded bouncy ball ride thing! After that we decided to eat.

It's a long video...skip to the middle!

 Animo got the fire a-going with a faggot of sticks that the park provides, as well as little stools and a grill. 

They had a strange method of cooking their BBQ. They placed a large sheet of tinfoil on top of the grill and  placed the meat on top of that and doused the meat with oil. I thought, ‘That’s genius! I’d never have thunk that up!’ 

But then…

…that’s why. They had brought veggie stuffs for me, eggplant, corn on the cob and mushrooms, which were all delicious. Note to self, put cumin powder on stuff, it’s goooood. 

Poo twins.

After our BBQ, we eventually headed onto the zoo. This is the infamous zoo that Tori, a previous AIB student who came out here on work experience with Alex back in 2006 (?), came out crying from because of how they mistreated the animals. They have an animal show in which they whip the animals to make them perform for us. Luckily/unfortunately we were too late to see any showing. Obviously it’s a terrible thing and I don’t want to see any animals being mistreated but the new found journalist in me wants to see it so I can show you all and experience China in all its not so much glory. Hopefully, when we return from Shanghai in April/May we can go back and catch the cruelty show.

 Most of the animals here were locked up in their cages. Usually zoo leave the gates open so they can come in and out as they please but not here. The also let you buy food to feed the monkeys. People were just throwing oranges and peanuts, not to the monkeys but AT the monkeys! Scornful looks were fired at them from all four of us. Their variety of animals wasn’t great, they actually had Lions and Tigers and Bears…and monkeys, I think they belonged to the Wicked Witch of the West we saw earlier…It is a pretty dreadful zoo. The animals clearly aren’t there for conservation but they’re a lot bigger than Nayi, so I can’t save these ones.