On the first weekend in June we visited a themed tourist area in Panyu, Guangzhou called Chimelong. The area has two hotels, a water park, a fun park, a crocodile park, a safari park and a circus. As we were only there overnight we went to the safari park and the circus.

Amazingly everything we see in China seems to get bigger and better than before. The circus was absolutely amazing with a cast of over 100 people and probably 50 animals. Animals in the show included: horses, elephants, flamingoes, white tigers, hippopotumuses, giraffes, monkeys, bears, pigs, llamas, dogs and probably more that I have forgotten. The performers included acrobats, trapeze artists, high divers, flame throwers and those who performed with the animals in a variety of ways - galloping horses with people bouncing and swapping sides, standing up, doing handstands etc. It was a simply amazing spectacle and it occurred to me that probably only in China could you find a full time circus with a big top seating 5000 that operates year round every night and you just buy your ticket on the day and it was full! Prices by Australian standards are inexpensive, but probably quite expensive for the average chinese person at 120yuan per adult and 60 per child. 60 yuan is roughly $20. An adult is anyone over 140 cm and this is universal at all attractions throughout china - so Stephen (aged 10) is priced at an adult. Mind you as his feet are now the same size as mine (Aussie 8.5) I guess that is fair enough!

We also went to the safari park (prices the same as circus) and it was similar in style to Western Plains Zoo, but is the best zoo I have been to. They have 20,000 animals and a large number of them seemed to have babies. There was an enormous drive through section which we caught a "train" which took 25 minutes without stopping and drove through enormous areas with animals that were easy to spot and the animals were obligingly staying around their name signs!! We had commentary (but in chinese) so we needed the signs in some cases to identify the animals. Loads of African animals, south American and Asian sections. The rest of the zoo was equally large and you walked it and there was a big Australian section with koalas being pride of place. It is the first zoo in China to have koalas and they have had them 1 year and have been planning for 6 years,growing the gum trees for food and building the enclosures. The koalas came from Currumbin on the Gold Coast and have thrilled the chinese by providing the world's first (yes first - not even in Australia) koala twins born in captivity. Well you can imagine the banners proclaiming this fact are everywhere throughout the zoo.

My favourite was the pandas, having never seen them before and there are some rather nice photos in the photo section to look at. They are very gorgeous looking animals and really do look very cuddly. The kids however really liked the baby tigers and for 20 yuan you could feed one - well we couldn't miss that opportunity.

The circus also had shows - we saw a fabulous elephant show - walking along beams and doing various balances, playing soccer and basketball etc - it was really very good. We also saw bears and tigers perform which was great, though I felt more sad about those. Not that I feel they are in anyway mistreated, but it is not natural for these animals to jump through hoops and walk on 2 legs. I can hear you saying, but it is for elephants?? Well not exactly, but elephants have been trained as beasts of burden in Asia, in forests etc for centuries, so it seems a bit easier to handle. The circus had a similar elephant show and a better bear show.

The other thing that amazed me is the chinese willingness to be humiliated in public - people will volunteer for anything it seems. At the circus - one guy got dumped in the water fully dressed! They really do take it all in their stride.

As everywhere we were the only non chinese we saw that day and Claire especially was loved and had loads of photos taken - she bears this with good humour and towards the end of the day likes to hide incognito under my hat (there is a photo of her in the Beijing Album showing this). They are all so blonde that it is easy to spot them!