Rongcheng!

Last weekend marked the last of my day/weekend excursions from Weihai; my final one, this weekend, will be spent packing and seeing friends for the final time.

Allyssa, Nadeige, and I hired a car to take us to Rongcheng and specifically to Chengshantou, the furthest point east on the Chinese mainland, and a well-reviewed zoo where, rumour had it, you could toss live chickens to the animals for a nominal fee.

We had the driver drop us off first at Chengshantou, where we did a little hiking along the coast. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty cloudy, but at least the rain held off for a little while (until we got to the zoo). On the other hand, this meant that there were relatively few tourists, which in China is always a good thing.

A statue garden near the entrance to Chengshantou:


The coast near the end of the world:




In China, I suppose it never hurts to be reminded (On that note, I saw my first full grown woman urinating on the street the other day. She was seated on the curb with her pants pulled down, whizzing away. I'd seen kids and drunk guys do it before, but never a woman. Then, a few days later, I saw another one doing it in plain daylight!), regardless of the place:


Heaven right this way, please:


The official edge of the world/heaven, though as you can see in the second picture, it's actually NOT the furthest point east:



Let's hear it for the year of the pig! The Golden Year, in fact!


So many choices, so much confusion...


If I see you shooting sharks on the fishing platform, you will be asked to leave. And vice versa. Order, people!


I've commented before on China's tendency to make up jobs just to keep people employed. This man's job is to sweep the street:



After we finished up at Chengshantou and made our way back to the car, our next stop was the zoo. Unlike any other zoo I've seen before, this one allowed you to walk on platforms above the animals. This, combined with the fact that most of the cages are very small, gave me the closest look I've ever had at most of the animals.


White tiger:



The zoo staff apparently have a lot of free time and imagination, because they came up ridiculous combinations for various cages. I'm pretty sure this would be considered unethical or cruel in most other countries, but here it's real entertainment.

This one, called "Harmonious Paradise", featured a lion, tiger, dog, and panther, all living together harmoniously.



Well, most of the time:



Another exhibit, labeled "Peaceful Coexistence", featured hyenas, wolves, and leopards. Here, you can see the leopards and wolves actually sleeping together. My guess is that all of them were on tranquilizers:




Next up were tons of different monkey cages, and we were allowed to walk around inside this one (with the monkeys). If you look closely, you can see some hanging onto the ropes.


However, monkeys have to follow rules. Among the offences: rascaldom, stealing, dacoity, stowaway, and hurting. At least the judges are impartial and incorruptible, though:


If they don't, they end up here:



Several kinds of monkeys were free from the threat of monkey prison, and they each had their own section of the zoo.

I like these little guys; they look like they've dipped their arms into yellow paint.


And this one yawned (imposingly) quite a lot:


Of course, there was also a section where the zookeepers had mixed a lot of monkeys together:



There were some animals I had never seen before (as well as many hilarious signs; I suggest reading all of them):


And some that I've never before seen in a zoo:




Is the zoo staff making a value judgement on these squirrels?


Can you guess what a "small fairy" is?


That's right! An opossum!


I didn't know otters were members of the wolf family:


A really (un)useful sign for the boa constrictors:



Next up was the bird section:


A beautiful peacock:


And ostriches, which were tall enough, combined with the low sidewalk, to snap at children's' toes:


Apparently, they are also former knights:


The ultimate contraction (and command):


Awww... "Lesser Pandas"!



Next up was the African section, which somehow featured bears. This is also where the conditions for the animals became especially appalling.

I was secretly hoping this one would thrash the idiot sitting on top of it, but that would have required ripping out the ring the staff had inserted into its nose to control it:


The bear cage, on the other hand, was neither paradise nor harmonious. It's a bear plaza!


This Tibetan bear jumped right up on the wall and looked up at me. I think he really wanted to escape his concrete hell.


Racing stripes!


Elephant mud pit:


And rhinoceros mud pit!



Finally, we reached the petting zoo, the last section before the marina animals. These goats had had their fur painted with patterns of flowers and plants.



But at least they had a dog to keep them company!



After the marine animals and a long walk back to the driver, since the zoo had been planned rather poorly and doesn't loop back around to the beginning but rather ends in a deserted area about a kilometer from the entrance, we made the one-hour trip back home. We spent most of our time at the zoo rather than hiking as we had anticipated, but it was too difficult to stop staring at the monkeys fight each other. Unfortunately, I didn't get to fulfill my dream of throwing a chicken into a lion cage, as it was a little expensive, but we did cut up a tomato and throw them to monkeys and watch them elude one another as they munched on them.

This week, I'm just wrapping up my classes and reviewing for next week's exam. Time is almost up in Weihai, but it's been a wild and crazy ride.