Safari Park

Matthew says:
We visited the local theme park here in Guangzhou today, and went to the safari. It was a cool zoo that was themed after the African safari. The first thing we went on was a mini-train ride through a large ‘free range’ animal area containing everything from blue deer to peacocks to lions and giraffes. We also saw an amazing elephant show where the elephants did relay races, walked on balance beams, played basketball, soccer, and even bowed down to their ‘king’. We saw quite a few more giant pandas and had lots of fun looking at how they were interacting and relating their behaviors to ours. Then we saw a bird show where lots of prehistoric looking birds and eagles did fly-overs, parrots took tips from the hands of the audience, and birds talked in Chinese. We also went to the animal nursery where Mia got to see little tiger and bear cubs that were her size get bottle-fed just like we do with her. The last show that we saw was the White Tiger Show. In this show, two trainers were in a cage with 10 or 12 tigers and had them crawl under each other, jump over each other run laps, walk on two legs, walk backwards on two legs, run up a ladder and jump over a gap, jump and break through hoops covered in cloth/paper, and one of the tamers even put her hand into a lions mouth and kept it in there for a while. We all thought this was spectacular, which it was, but what we saw next made everything we had seen look like child’s play. Our next stop was the Circus. Contrary to our early ideas, this circus was not so much an animal circus, but more like the Cirque de Soleil. The opening stunt set the scene for more even more amazing displays, a diver jumped from the ceiling five stories up, into fire on top of a moat full of water. Spectacular. There were the typical standing on horseback tricks and we saw a group of five men make a pyramid standing on each other’s shoulders while the horses galloped around the stage. A bear walked a tightrope on two legs, while more rode bicycles and even motorcycles. There was also an incredible compilation of trapeze ticks. The artists were almost three stories of the ground on platforms, and did amazing combinations of flips and turns before catching another trapeze that was thrown to them. They jumped, twisted, and swung, usually letting go of their trapeze and flying through the air to catch another one or to grab onto a swinging persons legs. It was incredible. The craziest stunt we saw was a giant four-leaf clover metal thing with pipes on all arms. Acrobats would walk in them like hamster wells and when they got to the top, they would jump, being able to float inside their ball for half a rotation. Then they walked on the outside, being four stories off the ground at the peak without safety nets. Then they put on blindfolds, and jumped rope. After they had taken off the blindfolds and gotten back inside while still moving, the main acrobat jumped and got hang time on the outside of his ring while it was on fire! Super crazy in my opinion. While they were changing the set for the last scene, we were distracted by cute little people puffballs, unicyclists, stilt walkers and contortionists. The last scene was pirate themed with a central diving structure with two high dives and one super high dive. On the sides it was flanked by two gymnastics trampolines with a ‘backboard’. Clowns dressed up and did funny stunts off the diving boards holding umbrellas and the like, while acrobats on the side bounced and did flips on the trampoline, periodically disappearing and reappearing through doors in the ‘backboard’. It was spectacular. If you are in China near Guangzhou, it is a must-see. We're a little worried about what seeing a show like this will do to Mia's psyche... we're sure she has seen nothing like this ever before, and being exposed to these stunts so early in her experience of the greater world might have an undesirable influence on her. We're hoping she doesn't think stunts like this are normal!



Maria says:

Mia's newest tricks are giving people high five's and running. Well, not really running. More like leaping. If you put her on the ground, take a few steps back from her, hold your arms open to her and call her name, she takes a few steps in your direction then kind of takes a flying leap the rest of the way, right into your arms, with delighted squeal and giggle. She is quite daring and trusting...you'd better make sure and look in her direction to see if she's coming your way, or she'll end up doing a face plant at your feet!

For our first (and only) full day in Guangzhou, our guide suggested we might enjoy the local safari park. She said the international circus performance in the evening is really something our family would enjoy. We listened to her suggestion, and had a fabulous day. My favorite part of the safari park was the Giant Pandas...they were very active and entertaining to watch. Mia seemed fascinated by the tall old trees at the safari park--she kept pointing up to them all day long, as if she had never seen mature trees before. The Chimelong International Circus performance in the evening was fabulous...something like a Cirque de Soleil.

When we returned to our hotel room tonight, we found a "Going Home Barbie" (a blond haired, blue eyed barbie holding a little Chinese baby in her arms) on our desk. It turns out that the play room in the hotel is sponsored, designed and outfitted by Mattel as a special place "where you can relax while your child enjoys playing and learning with many of Mattel's toys and videos." The back of the the "Going Home Barbie" box reads "This souvenir is presented by Mattel Ltd. to adopting parents of Chinese orphan children staying at the White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China".

I never played with dolls as a little girl; I was amazed to see how starry-eyed Mia was as she gazed at the Barbie doll placed in front of her. When the boys saw how enamored Mia was with her doll, they immediately decided they needed to up the level of testosterone breeding toys in the household! I don't know if I'd go that far, but we will certainly do better than blond-haired, blue-eyed Barbies (Benjamin's comment to me after his first encounter with a Barbie up close: "Barbies are weird, Mom...they sort seem out of proportion because their legs are almost double the length of their torso!)


Tomorrow, Mia will attend her swearing in/oath taking as an American Citizen at the American consulate tomorrow. Better get her to bed so she is ready for her official duties!