Not quite Tigger the Tiger

Today being a Saturday, it was field trip day at Harbin No.1 High School. We had been anticipating our trip to the Harbin Tiger Zoo for a while, or as the Chinese call it, Hu Yuan. The bus ride over was buzzing with excitement the moment we heard it was a safari style zoo. The entrance to the zoo had many tiger statues to greet us. 

Without delay, our entire group boarded a bus, that actually looked more like a cage. The bus was surrounded by steel cross bars. We drove around through the different areas where the tigers were living. There were hundreds of tigers in this zoo, but thanks to the physical vastness of it, it didn't look like they were over crowded at all. It is the largest natural park for wild Northeast tigers in the world. We were told there were over 500 tigers there, but only about 100 that were visible to travellers.

As we drove, most of the tigers seemed unphased by our presence there at all. It was clear they were used to the routine buses. When a few wandered over toward our bus to say hello, it was definitely exciting to see them close up. They were something to see too. These cats are HUGE. The safari ride ended by delivering us to the start of these tunnel-like passage ways that looped in and around different tiger cages. We walked up and down and all around those passage ways, some actually going over the Tigers.

On a passageway over the Tigers

While in the passage ways above the tigers, there were different places where you could buy food in which to feed the tigers. As opposed to animal feed, or maybe even a strip of meat that you would buy at an American zoo, the food that was available to feed the tigers here, was LIVE chickens, ducks or even cows. There were cages filled with chickens and others with ducks. 
 
When someone wanted one, they would reach in, grab the bird by the wings and hand it to their customer who would then drop the live crying animal to its death. 

Man carrying live chicken

I couldn't believe that none of the Chinese people thought this was the slightest bit strange or even sad for the poor birds. Through my experiences here it is obvious that the things which people value here are much different than those that people value in America. No question that animal compassion is valued very differently here than it is in America.

When finally content that we had seen our fill of tigers, we reloaded the bus and headed back to school for lunch.

Jin tian wo qu le hu yuan.  今天我去了虎园   Today I went to the Tiger Zoo.