Běijīng Zoo 北京动物园
西直门外大街
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Northwest Beyond the Zoo
The use of this space as a park dates back to the reign of the Shùnzhì emperor (1644–1661), and the area received extensive development by the Qiánlóng emperor. But a menagerie appeared here only after the Empress Dowager Cíxǐ took an interest in the largely abandoned site as she passed it on her way to the Summer Palace.
When a Manchu Prince returned from a 17-country overseas tour in 1903, he brought with him a selection of animals and birds bought in Germany as a present for Cíxǐ, which she installed here. The site was renamed the Wàn Shēng Yuán, or ‘Garden of Ten Thousand Animals’, ‘ten thousand’ really meaning, as it does in the name of the Great Wall, ‘rather a lot’.
By the 1930s their numbers were down to fewer than 100, including an elephant kept in a cage scarcely large enough for a baboon, and all were severely malnourished. The remainder had been stuffed, ‘the only time that this term could be applied to them after their arrival’ commented contemporary guidebook authors Arlington and Lewisohn, acidly.
Attitudes haven’t changed much, and the casual cruelty of some Chinese visitors can also be very distasteful. If you have a serious zoo at home then Běijīng Zoo will not impress. But the panda facility has been much improved and is close to the main gate, making it possible to go in merely for panda viewing and avoid the rest. The fact that many foreign visitors do precisely that has led to the two-tier pricing system.
Zoos all over China have been desperate to attract some of urban China’s growing discretionary spending, which is mainly going on education for children and other more up-to-date pleasures. In the late ’90s several zoos and wildlife parks took to putting on shows in which live domestic animals were put in with hungry but often incompetent lions and tigers. This was widely reported in the Western media in 1999 and subsequently banned, which meant that as soon as the fuss died down it started up again, although not at this particular zoo.
Běijīng Aquarium 北京海洋馆
The impressive Běijīng Aquarium in the northeast corner of the zoo is one of several competing multi-million-yuán operations that opened at more or less the same time in the late ’90s. This claims to be the world’s largest inland aquarium, a building roughly in the shape of a conch shell containing thousands of marine species. Another facility of this type is the Blue Zoo (Fùguó Hǎidǐ Shìjiè) at the south gate of the Worker’s Stadium.
▶ Běijīng Dòngwùyuán, Xī Zhí Mén Wài Dàjiē 137, t 6839 0274, www.beijingzoo.com, Apr 1–Oct 31 7.30am-6pm; else 7.30am–5pm, Apr 1–Oct 31 ¥15 otherwise ¥10, or ¥20/¥15 including pandas. m Běijīng Zoo (Line 4) or Xī Zhí Mén (Lines 2, 4, & 13) exit A and walk W. b to 动物园: 特4, 7, 15, 19, 27, 45, 65, 102电车, 103电车, 运通104线, 运通105线, 105电车, 运通106线, 107电车, 111电车, 运通205线, 319, 332, 334, 347, 360, 360快车, 362, 534, 563, 608, 632, 685, 697, 714.
For a well-run albeit panda-less wildlife reserve, which really does have the right idea about animal care and environmental issues, visit the Mílù Yuàn, the home of reintroduced Père David’s deer and other endangered and rare quadrupeds. The Wǔ Tǎ Sì (Five Padoga Temple) is just behind the zoo, and can be reached by walking through it and out of the north gate. The Běijīng Planetarium and Paleozoological Museum of China are opposite the main entrance of the zoo and slightly west.
Several buses to outlying temples leave from the bus station across the road from the zoo, including routes to the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Summer Palaces. One of the boat routes to the Summer Palace leaves from just east of the Zoo, behind the exhibition centre (see Summer Palace for details).
Next in Northwest Beyond the Zoo: Běijīng Planetarium
Previously: Educating Emigrants (story)
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.
For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.
