Hongshan Forest Zoo

Saying good bye to the dinosaurs we continued west to the city of Nanjing for the first of 3 parks on this itinerary.

The first one Hongshan Zoo as you've probably guessed is a zoo with the enclosures spread across a vast expanse of open and forested land. You certainly won't see the lions next to the aquarium here, instead you have to walk quite a bit.

However with the heat and humidity as high as they were there was very little chance of seeing anything at all. All the big animals were indoors finding solace in the shade and certainly weren't coming out to play, which could upset people that pay to see the animals.

The zoo has a small amusement ride section for such an eventuality and being the sad geeks that we are that's where we headed. First up was yet another spinning mouse and again because the car was run fully loaded meant it didn't spin that much.

We're coming across more mice on this trip than you'll find in your local Aberdeen Steak House!

The second coaster was another kiddy coaster which attracted the small crowd of locals to come and watch us ride. Could it be a bunch of Western tourists was more of a draw than the animals?

The giraffes stick their necks out to watch the tourists.

Take a small electric car and inflate a random animal around it and tadah! a new ride is born.

and it's a little kinder to the animals than this would be

These were quite cute too. No idea how they worked though.

Hey hey! We're the monkeys!

No trip to China is complete without one Panda visit, and this one wasn't asleep!

Hongshan Zoo is located north of the main railway station. You can walk it or you can catch a metro one stop north from there. The zoo has it's own station called, not surprisingly Hongshan Zoo