Chris Hansen’s blog

Well, I’m back in Singapore again, tired but seemingly OK. No jetlag now, as Singapore and China are in the same time zone.

Monday we decided to meet Jane for a trip to Shanghai Zoo. We met her downtown and went to a food court, where we had real Shanghainese food. Most of it is dumplingesque, with large dumplings very similar to what we would have in The Well at the Elephant, plus some wonton-like dumplings in soup, and round dumplings, all of which were filled with beef or pork. Very nice indeed. Then we taxied out to Shanghai Zoo. Thirty RMB to get in, and, I tell you, it was quite sad, really. The zoo has lots of open space, lots of places to sit down, and a great variety of animals. However, the smaller primates were in relatively small cages with little in the way of amusement. They sat and stared, for the most part. The elephants were bored–I’m told that when an elephant stands and sways back and forth, swinging its trunk, it’s bored. These three elephants were bored stiff. One was a very cute 7 month old baby elephant, but it’s learning to be bored. We went to see the sealion show. but it was just the usual toss the ball to the sealion and watch him balance it on his nose.

HWMBO got more and more excited as we got close to Da Xiong Mao. On the steps leading up to the enclosure Jane discovered a cute little kitten, just wandering around. Apparently people, thinking that a zoo is where animals are, drop unwanted pets over the fence. Jane wanted to take her home (she couldn’t have been more than a month old or so) but we convinced her that it probably wasn’t a good idea (she already has a cat, and various feline disorders might be brought into the house with the kitten). Then we got to see Da Xiong Mao, in all her glory. She was sitting in the corner eating not bamboo, but apples and various things that looked like cake but probably weren’t. Her white patches of fur were yellow, as though she were a heavy smoker. Bamboo was being noisily piled up behind her by an attendant, but she took no notice. Apples were the order of the day.

We had to make our way out then so that we could get home for massages, but some observations about the zoo are in order:

• This zoo is really a golden opportunity going to waste. There are lots of interesting animals here, but they are all bored stiff, most are in unsuitable habitats, and while they seem well-nourished physically, mentally they are quite unfit (in my opinion).
• The physical plant needs urgent attention. It’s clear that in its 52 year history it hasn’t been improved much. In the Singapore Zoo, you wouldn’t even know that the animals defecate or urinate, it’s so clean and well kept. The plant is up to date. The habitats are appropriate to the animal. Not so in Shanghai. It needs money desperately and a plan to improve the facilities to be humane to the animals.
• There is a great opportunity here to make the zoo a destination not only for tourists but for the local population as well. With a Metro station either soon to be opened or already open, good bus service, lots of open space, and interesting animals to see it would be a natural draw and could make lots of money and a worldwide reputation. It’s a shame the place has been left to fester. Very few locals and even fewer tourists were there–it would benefit from the revenue bigger crowds would bring.

C.B. had booked us a masseur to make a house call that evening so we hurried back. He is a 40-ish rather short guy but, wow, what strength in his hands. I was screaming in pain as he did my calves and legs. I think my back is a bit better, so we’l see whether the muscle spasms come back. The masseur did 1-1/2 hours on me then 1/2 hour each on HWMBO and Jane. He told HWMBO (he only spoke rudimentary English, so I needed HWMBO to translate) that I was scared of pain so he went very easy on me…it sure didn’t seem easy when he was doing it.

That night we had Taiwanese porridge. Quite a performance. It was billed as “Grandmother’s Gruel”, which doesn’t have quite the same sense of flavour as “Grandmother’s Porridge” would. There is a burner in the middle of the table, and on the burner is placed a pot of thin rice porridge, mostly water really. A costumed waitress then cooks the food you ordered in the porridge, and ladles each item out in turn. They started out with fish, which I didn’t eat. Then there was something that looked suspiciously like liver…I asked, and it was. So I didn’t have any of that either. By now I was ravenous as I’d only had a few cucumbers and various other bits.

She brought out the beverage. I asked whether it was tea, and HWMBO replied, “It’s chestnut water.” Dubious, I took a sip. It tasted like water chestnuts. Ick. I asked for some mineral water to take my pills with.

Finally there was some chicken, which was quite bony but tasty. There was some tofu, which was nice, and finally various vegetable bits that were OK. At the end of it all the server put some more rice in the porridge and we each got a bowl of that. I felt as if I would lose lots of weight on such fare.

This morning my foot was better. We had toyed with the idea of going to the art museum before going to the airport, but I feel that on the travel day it’s best to concentrate on packing and getting to the airport rather than going elsewhere and maybe introducing some complication into the equation. So we went to a Western style caf

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 10:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.