Ligers and Tigons…

A couple of weeks ago I got the exciting news that my working visa had finally been issued by the Hong Kong Immigration department (5 months after applying). I was quite beside myself as it means I’m no longer on a holiday visa which needs renewing every 3 months. Another guy here called Ben was issued his visa as well and as we needed to leave the country in order to have them validated, we decided to go to Shenzhen in China for the day.

We arrived at about lunch time so naturally the first port of call was to find food. Shenzhen is where Hong Kongers go for Serious Shopping as there is a huge complex selling all manner of bargains (if you haggle well) right at the boarder where you come out of customs. That seemed the best place to start… We entered the building to be immediately accosted by a crowd of enthusiastic shop-owners (mostly women) all shouting “you buy missy missy you buy pelicure maniclure deebeedee copy watch missy missy you buy??” Our first taste of Chinese pushiness. We managed to stay focused and followed some big signs that promised food, up lots of escalators and round and round until we realised we might need some help and shouted into the chaos: “dim sum!??” Suddenly a lady manifested from nowhere wearing a restaurant uniform, armed with menu. She gently but firmly steered us through a rabbit-warren of aisles, past a plethora of interesting shops and enthusiastic sellers desperate for our esteemed patronage, to a wonderful looking dim sum restaurant at the edge of the complex looking out on China (actually it was mainly overlooking the bus terminal, but in the excitement of the moment it was the whole of China waiting to be discovered).



The dim sum did the trick, we paid in Hong Kong dollars as the guide book promised we could do and after looking at our options decided we would visit the Shenzhen Safari Park located “in the north.” It was a bit of a surprise therefore to find the bus conductor refusing to take our Hong Kong dollars to pay for the ride. During the ensuing comical game of charades which finally ended in a kindly man on the bus exchanging our dollars from his own wallet, the realisation slowly dawned that outside of the “you-buy-missy-missy” shopping centre on the boarder, we were in China and we were on our own. There were no foreigners to be seen. There appeared to be no-speak-a-da-ingrish and there was definitely no accepting of foreign monies!

Shenzhen is a SEZ (Special Economic Zone) - which means it has its own economic laws designed for economic growth. One can get a 3 day visa to visit Shenzhen so long as one doesn’t wish to venture further afield into greater China. Whatever it means in theory, in practice the SEZ status appears to have made Shenzhen rather wealthy. I was expecting it to be crowded, crammed with ugly high rises, polluted and lacking for greenery. A more intense version of Hong Kong. In fact it was the opposite. So much green! The landscaped streets we passed through on the hour-and-a half (when will we be there) bus ride were incredible. It’s like a cleaner, newer, more spacious and greener version of Hong Kong with less hills (it’s rather flat). I don't have a good photo of the streets so uploaded this video so you can see...



We finally arrived at the Safari Park to find that our Hong Kong dollars were shunned here too, but a nearby shopkeeper came to our rescue and we exchanged enough money to see us through the rest of the day. By this time the heat and humidity of the day was intense and after being in the lovely air conditioned bus so long I felt like a slice of refrigerated bread suddenly finding itself in the toaster. In a hot, sweating and slightly wilting manner, we enjoyed many hours looking at animals and trying to avoid paying for photographs with all manner of other attractions along the way - our subsequent encounter with Chinese pushiness. I've posted another video clip to give you an idea. (This lady with cockatoo had been following us along trying to convince us to have a photo for some time before I thought to take the video)...



She plonks the bird on Ben despite our protests, so I take advantage of the photo opportunity which thereafter sees the lady following us for some way demanding payment...



The undeniable highlight was the Enclosure for Dangerous Animals where creatures such as bears and lions and tigers are roaming free (in separate sections from each other). We were taken through on a mini bus and got up close and personal, (but not as personal as when we were invited to feed some tigers in cages afterwards). For $10RMB each (less than $2AUD) we were given some chicken on a stick and led to a narrow pathway between 2 rows of cages housing all manner of felines including Ligers and Tigons - which sounds incredibly unnatural if you ask me.



As we passed the first cage I suggested to Ben that he kneel down in front of the nice tigers for a photograph. So he did, quite close to the cage, quite close to 3 quite large tigers. Just as I was about to take the nice photo one of the nice tigers decided it wanted to eat Ben. It let out a mortal roar and leapt spread-eagle onto the chicken wire cage that separated it from lunch. There was a frozen moment in time when Ben’s eyes went wide as saucers before my own self-preservational instincts kicked in and the rest went something like: scream flee heart attack laugh oh my gosh I thought I was lunch for a minute there might need to change my undies… As Ben noted later, I wouldn’t be very good journalist on the front line. I’m still kicking myself for not catching it on video let alone completely missing the photo. Ah well, we laughed about it all the way home… think it helped rid the body of all that adrenalin.

Here’s a video after we had fed the nice tigers and completely calmed down. Don’t be deceived, they look disinterested but they’re quietly plotting how to go about eating you.



For more zoo pics, go to the Shenzen June 07 link under 'My Pics' to your left somewhere.