Chimelong Safari

We had a fabulous day yesterday at the Chimelong safari.  Apparently, if you visit Guangzhou - this is one of the best things to do.  It was a combination of safari/zoo/performance all rolled into one.

We went with another family and were all very happy to have gone.  We loved the drive-through safari (on a train) and saw a lot of lions, tigers, bears, giraffes, deer, wildebeests, zebra, camels, rhinos and much more, very close up.  Jian loved it, but, was quite concerned that they would eat people.  After the 45 minute ride, we got off and walked (well, actually ran, following our guide) through the rest of the zoo and saw tons of white tigers, many pandas, a lot of baby animals, tigers, chimp, zebra, wildebeest, and deer and then attended 2 performances, an elephant performance (it was amazing) and a tiger performance (a little more sad and not quite as amazing).  We were completely worn out by the end of the day.  We all enjoyed leisurely looking at the animals, but, apparently that's not the chinese way of doing things ;)  Our guide was always in a hurry and encouraging us to move on after about a 1-2 minute stop at each place.  It was a bit comical really!  We laughed a lot because it seemed there wasn't any time to enjoy the animals, we were always needing to move on to the next one.  We wonder if the word linger is in the Chinese vocabulary.

Both boys really loved the park.  We obtained a lot of fun video that we'll have to post when we get back home.  There was a lot of laughter and a really fun day of memories.  The boys were tired, but, of course, not too tired to swim.  A quick dinner in our room (of 50-cent noodles from the 7/11 across the street) and we're all ready to rest, read and sleep!

This morning we went to have Jian's TB test read.  Fortunately, it was clear (they didn't inject it very well and left a bit of a bruise so I was a bit concerned they might note that as a reaction, but, thankfully it was clear).  Then, we went to do a little shopping to a pedestrian mall.   On the way we saw an entire street with very small shops on both sides of all types of chinese medicinal foods like dried snake, dried (and flattened) lizards, mushrooms, seeds, deer tendons, bones of things, and many other unrecognizable things - they were in giant bags to come and buy in bulk.  We also enjoyed walking (well, one of us - the rest of them tolerated it) around a large store of many smaller shops filled with jade.  It was a bit overwhelming, but, nice to look at.  

Now, back for some more swimming and a restful (hopefully :)) evening.  Tomorrow we'll need to get Jian's fingerprints done at the US Consulate and the following day we take our oath at the US Consulate.  Thursday we pick up his visa and Friday we head home!