Bus 87

Yesterday we had the day off...Happy Mid Autumn Festival day everyone! After many discussions this is the best explanation we've been given...apparently its half way through fall here (could have fooled me with the 95 degree weather) and its a full moon, so why not celebrate?! They take the day off and eat lots of "moon cakes." Josh and I tried some...there were a few that weren't bad that had some kind of fruity filling but some of the others were pure terrible. I think one we had was filled with Taro, which is like purple potato like stuff. Gag.

So anyway, we had the day off and we had big plans. We woke up earlier than normal, cleaned up the place, and headed off to Forrest Park. Forrest Park is a huge National Park outside of Fuzhou that is filled with beautiful mountains you can hike, rivers with clean water, and a pretty waterfall...Yep, we had big plans. Our big plans included hiking that mountain, swimming in that river, playing in the waterfall, and having a picnic. Yay for days off!!!

Just as we were told, we took bus 87 to the end of the route which takes a little over an hour, unfortunately we went the wrong way on bus 87 so we visited the wrong end of the bus route which tacked on another 30 minutes to the ride... but no big deal, it was our day off...So we laughed it off and rode an hour and 15 minutes to the other end of the bus route.



 

As the bus rolled to a stop....we looked around....no Forrest Park. Wrong bus. Fail. A little more disappointed but still laughing it off, we stepped off the bus to go on a grand adventure. We walked a little ways to see what we could stumble over and ended up at a large entryway and it looked nice....if only we read Chinese...

So we ventured on a little further and found a huge map. A map of the other side of that archway...still in Chinese, but we sure can read pictures.

We accidentally found the zoo!!! What a wonderful find! Whats even better is that it cost Josh and I a total of about $9.00 USD. YEEEHAW!!!

So we started out hiking up the mountain (because the zoo was staggered up the side of the mountain it turned into a hiking trip too...perfect!)

It didn't take us long to discover that this zoo would not pass American health or safety standards. The first exhibit we saw was the kangaroos they were contained with about a 2 1/2 foot wall....ummm can't they jump?! Then we turned around to see an ostrich staring us in the face from just feet away, also a very short wall....ummmm aren't ostriches dangerous?! To top it off when we got to the hippo exhibit, the tank was leaking the hippo's nasty looking blackish green water, no joke, his container had a leak...how on earth is that safe?!?! People could pose for pictures while hugging the sea lion, they used animals' living space as trash cans, and each animal lived on a concrete slab with a hut for shade. (So much for having a "natural habitat")

We were pretty tickled at the monkey exhibit though. After ducking under construction equipment (why close it off to public when under construction?? let em' in!) We looked down into the pit to see one monkey drinking from an empty water bottle and another dragging a welding mask around with his mouth.

Although Josh and I had fun walking around and seeing the animals we decided two things: 1. That we would stay away from the lion area and 2. That when an animal hears that they are being shipped to a Chinese zoo in the zoo animal raffle they cry out in agony..."NOOOOOO....dang it!"

But seriously...you could see it in their eyes, the animals looked like they were either losing their minds or they were desperate to escape...see for yourself...

See what I mean? But at least the Chinese are graduating from eating any animal to putting them in cages and admiring them...thats improvement! I'll give credit where credit is due.

So after walking up and down the mountain and seeing just about the whole zoo we were exhausted and decided to head on back home, especially since it was over 100 degrees and humid beyond belief. However, when we got down to the road which would take you back to the beginning, we found that it was closed for construction. Sure, you close the roads for construction...When Josh and I tried to slip past the sign, the security guard yelled something in Chinese at us and pointed up the mountain. Dang. So we turned around and hiked that sucker again...When we finally arrived back at the entrance shaking, sweaty, really smelly, and tired beyond all reason...

We hopped back on bus 87 because we at least knew it would take us home.