A Day at the Zoo

I love zoos!  So when I was asked (by a student) if I wanted to go, of course I said yes.  We met at the subway station near my apartment, took the Line 10 to the Line 13, where we traveled to Xizhimen.  From there, a 15 minute walk (with a stop at DQ).  Inside, we first went to see the Giant Pandas.  They were so cute!!!  From the pandas, we walked around and saw some birds, a monkey and lots of other animals. 

Lion, Tigers, and Bears- Oh My!

And I got to see 'em all.   We also saw wolves, penguins (for my momma), snakes... Yup, it was quite a good day.  My only problem was with the bears- their enclosures had quite a bit of trash in them.

My favorite- the penguins!!!  But it sucked that they charged an extra 10 yuan to go inside the Penguin House (and it's an extra 5 to see the Pandas).

The zoo closed at 5pm, so we headed out for dinner.  Since I really wanted hot pot, we went to a place near the Xizhimen subway station called Gourmet Pot.  We had a great time there, we had beef, mutton, fish, wonton, sweet potato (a must for me) and assorted veggies.  The restaurant was okay, they had a good selection of food and broths, but only four dipping sauces.  And two of them are sesame, and for those of us who don't like sesame... well, I managed to put my own together from their "snack" bar.   I definitely prefer I Rock My Pot (but that's across the city by Chaoyangmen).   From there, we headed home. 

I may go back to the zoo when I have more time to spend there, there was a lot we missed.  And maybe go to the aquarium, since I love those too.  JFYI, the two panda videos have no sound b/c I filmed them with my digital camera.  The penguin video has sound b/c it was filmed on my phone.

Now to figure out what I'm doing next weekend...