Guangzhou Zoo, Yue Xiu District

Never been to Zoo Negara but I am here at Guangzhou Zoo. It is not that I am bias with our National attractions but it is common to all local citizen is to have a mindset that, "You always have the chance for the local attraction but whenever you are overseas, try to go as many attractions you can." Aren't you one of the person who is having this mindset? 

Taking their Metro underground train station and get to Line 5 to reach to "Zoo Station". Once you exited the train station, you will be at the south gate of the Guangzhou Zoo entrance. Don't be amazed if you see the same crowd that I had seen here. Under 30 over degrees Celsius, the locals are not going to miss the opportunity of their summer breaks to make their point here. By the way, if you are curious what the crowd are lining up for, actually they are queueing up for the ticket.

Minimum to spend for entrance is just CNY20.00 (adult) and CNY10.00 (child) - equivalent to RM10.00 (adult) and RM5.00 (child). Sad to say our country cost 3x MORE!!! However, even they opened a temporary counter, there is really no improvement at all to sustain the crazy crowd. 

That's the entrance to start your Guangzhou Zoo journey from the South gate. There are a lot of food stalls and drinks selling at the gate where you can buy but you are not allowed to bring any outside food and drinks in. Well, some are not really that strict anyway.

Click to enlarge. With CNY20.00, you can basically go to 80% of the zoo to watch live animals from herbivores, birds, reptiles, amphibians, primates to carnivores.

You can take a tour ride from South gate to North gate or vice versa. CNY10.00/pax (RM5.00). They will take you to make one big round and of course will explain to you some interesting stories about the animals in this zoo. They will only converse in Mandarin.

The weird part is the zoo has a Brontosaurus model in it. I prefer they have a Panda instead. 

There is a mini entertainment park which is for adults and children. However, I do not find the facilities in it are exciting enough...at least for me.

The first park you will see  from the South Gate is the Bird Park.

You will see various of birds in the park but all the birds that can fly will remained in the cage. As expected for a zoo.

Some cages are big enough to fly around. However, I still do not think it is big enough when too many birds like this in it.

This parrot is clever enough to know that is the key part to loosen the cage. However, I am wondering how long will it takes.

Here are the bigger cage which allows us to walk in it. Somehow to let you feel their home and how they live. I don't think it is barely near the reality.

Especially when I don't see many birds in it. Pretty boring at the bird park.

After bird park, you will find yourself already at the middle part of the zoo. To your right hand is the herbivores and which you will be lead back to the South Gate. So I chose to the left where you will see the carnivores like tigers here. They have a bigger open space park for the Tigers.

Some tiger like the white tigers are not really that lucky. They are so frustrated in their securely closed cage which they make a big roar. Wow, their roar is really enough to make you root at the spot or make a few steps back even they are caged! I can't imagine when face to face with them.

Puma is black and not so attractive like other large cat breed. However, I still like them because I like Puma shoes a lot! LOL

Can anyone tell me is this a Cheetah, Jaguar or Leopard? I hardly can guess unless I read the board.

Even the Lion king does not have a luxury to have an open space cage.

There other animals which I are not really well captured, I have removed them from posting here. There are bears, wolfs and foxes. 

Don't ask me why because I even puzzled to find porcupine at the carnivores section? Mistake or no more places at the herbivores section? No matter what, I do not think it is good because it educated people wrongly to thought that porcupine eats meat.

Even Swamp Beavers? Did I failed my biology or what? Anyway, actually they are trying to group them together as rodent class group. However, they can be found at the carnivores sections. Very misleading.

Luckily it is written they what they eat so the misleading information can be reduced. However, their board is written in Mandarin. Not really tourist friendly. There are some information boards like this written in English. They are not really standardized it well.

Among all the rodents, I still prefer these. I find them very playful and cheeky at times!

Between herbivores section and carnivores section, there is a very large pond separated them.

No cage or fence for them and they will not escape.

You will find all the big birds living in this pond openly. Seems like that treated the place as their home and will not fly away. Except the swan of course, they can't fly.

The weather is really hot. It was as hot as in Malaysia. So I really do not recommend to visit this place between the month of July - September. Crowded and hot!

Next is the primate section. There are 2 big open air living place at the primate section.

One of them is for chimpanzee. This place is really huge with manmade waterfall and a lot of toys for them to play with.

Well, none of them play them and they seems dull and bored.

I am pretty sure they are enjoying the place but the weather right now is just not really suit for any outdoor activities.

Another open air section is the lair for the yellow monkeys with the manmade waterfall and their little playground as well.

They are rather more active than the chimpanzee under the hot sun.

Some irresponsible visitors throw a balloon to a monkey and thought that it is a food. I think it will take a while for it to realize that is not meant for eaten.

There are many other type of primates which are not lucky enough to have the big open space to live in.

Amphibians are the tortoise and turtles which are confined in a glass cage.

Others are snakes, iguana and much more. The place to watch these confined creatures are crowded and so smelly when the people here sweat a lot under the hot weather. It is not a wise choice for the organizer to plan this.

If you see this, this is not the reptiles of course. It is the food for the snakes. Hope you are lucky enough to see how they prey on it.

The highlight of the reptiles section is still the crocodiles and alligators. They are so big, motionless and look so dumb. 

One interesting part I caught in my camera is to see how the monitor lizard stepping on another of their own to cross over to another side. I would have pissed if I were the monitor lizard!

I skipped the uninteresting butterfly park and straight to the final section which is the herbivores. 

The herbivores sections are really big so they separated animals at the highlands and goat-antelopes family.

Their kangaroo here is rather small looking size than the one I saw in Australia.

It is cute to see the giraffe seems like trying to show you his height by standing next to the measuring pole.

A sitting and a standing giraffes to see how big their height difference. The essential part of their height is still because of their legs instead of their neck. However, to us, the neck is the highlight to make the giraffe unique than any other animals.

Rhinoceros are hot tempered animals which they are securely contained in a strong and thick steel cage.

No horses here but they are zebras. Horses only can be found in Animal Plaza section which is charged separately at CNY20.00/pax for adult. 

The weather is really too hot. Not just human standing in a water of ice but even the animals are finding ways to chill themselves down.

An elephant keep blowing the sands on the top of their body to cool down from their exposed body towards the direct sunlight.

Even just a tiny drop of water dripping out from a water pipe, a hippopotamus will take the advantage of it. So you can imagine how hot the weather here during the month of July - September.

It is really amusing to find pigs in the zoo! You will never find them in Zoo Negara of course. It is so cute to see how the behave! Funny!

The highlight of this zoo is still their national animal - Panda. 

However, they are remained hidden inside an air-conditioned room because they are highly protected animal especially when the current weather is so hot!

There is an animal & earthquake museum here which is free for entry but it is really nothing exciting in there.

There are food stalls in the zoo selling the same things which is their instant noodle. Their food and beverage are pretty expensive too. That's the part where they will start earning back after providing such a cheap ticket entrance fee. However, the worst part is their staffs especially those who are managing the food stalls are extremely rude and impatient. They will scold you directly if you cannot decide what you want to buy immediately.

Too many people even under the hot weather so makes me once again to stress the point that to advise not a good time to visit this zoo during the month of July - September. It is still worth to visit when your RM10.00 can spend the whole day here. It is really worth it. I just cannot accept the culture of some local Chinese people there to take off their shirts in the zoo. There is still a gap in their culture.

Other attractions inside this zoo;
Jin Lian Yuan
Animal Plaza
Ocean World

Total Damage: CNY20.00
Service: 1/5
Price: 5/5
Recommended?: Yes
Business Hours: 8.00am - 4.00pm (you have to exit by 6.00pm) - opens daily