We ventured out last weekend to the Beijing Zoo and Aquarium. What an experience! (Not necessarily a good one). To sum it up-it was one of the largest cities in the world and it was a weekend where the Chinese Citizens were on holiday........all together not a good combo for being in public places in Beijing. But anyway-we made the best of it.
We started in the aquarium...very enjoyable. The dolphin and seal show were the boys favorite part. We got there early and tried to strategize where to sit so that we could exit easily with the boys and the stroller. Well-nothing is as it seems in China so sitting in the top row next to three sets of exit doors doesnt' mean that you will be the first to exit out those doors-it simply means they will not let you out the doors for whatever reason-so we ended up having to carry the stroller back down the three flights of steps and through the crowd of people to exit. Very few parts of the zoo were handicap/stroller accessible-which was a pain, but we managed.
After finishing up the aquarium, we found a nice big grassy area where a few people were blowing bubbles with their kids. Kellan loved this so we decided to park it here for our picnic-which was very nice:) By this point we had been at the zoo for a few hours and the boys were starting to get tired. We decided we HAD to see the pandas before we left since we were there. That was our biggest mistake----we had to walk to the opposite end of the zoo and then fight thousands and thousands of people to see 2 pandas up against a glass barrier. We had the stroller which didn't work at all, so riley threw kieran on his shoulders to get a peak and then after they got a glance, kellan and i were going to try to sneak a peak. Well somehow kieran managed to get a picture-and riley caught a glimpse i think....but when he came back to where kellan andi were standing with the stroller-riley said he wasn't going to let me go up there b/c it was too dangerous! It is not that people are intentionally rude (i don't think)....that is just the way it is here with so many people. if you want to get anywhere-you have to be rude and PUSH! So i took the husbandly/fatherly advice and decided not to venture to the window to see the pandas....we said we would come back another time. Hopefully we will get to the place in China where we can see Pandas in their natural environment before we leave.
The ride home was another adventure-we got out close to our house fine-but then riley missed the turn-off from the airport expressway-so we took the next exit we could. We ended up driving through a village for about 2 miles-that must have taken 30 minutes and riley almost got into a couple fender benders. Driving was like the zoo----if you want to get anywhere you have to be forceful. Well-when cars are going both ways down a one-way street and people and bikes are EVERYWHERE---driving is not the easiest thing to do! Well after a couple close-calls-we made it to the end of the road which LUCKILY ran into a road we thought looked vaguely familiar. That road took us home where we all crashed for a few hour nap:)
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