Subterranean Homesick Blues . . .

. . . would be the perfect heading for today's entry if I was homesick. But I'm not. The other two bits of the heading are applicable though, slightly, because I swiped into the subway without really thinking, got half way towards getting on the train and realised, erk, I didn't hear the machine beep and I think the barrier arms were already open. I thought, I hope that doesn't mean I can't get back out again because I haven't officially swiped in. Um, yes, that is what it means. When I tried to exit the card came up as invalid. A staff member came over to investigate. They took my card away for ages before bringing it back and getting me to swipe in again before swiping back out. I must say the evil totalitarian officious rail bureaucrats were nothing but nice and friendly throughout the whole process. So it seems I won't be incarcerated for attempting to defraud the People's Republic of China of their two Yuan. That's a relief!

I kind of decided I couldn't come home from a visit to China without being able to say I'd seen a giant panda so I decided to visit the Beijing Zoo. It hadn't been on my 'to do' list but it's close, cheap, and is a world leader, not surprisingly, in the conservation and recovery of the giant panda. Cooler would be to go to the National Park in Sichuan Province and see them at the centre there (the chances of seeing a wild one are minimal) but going to Sichuan doesn't seem that likely. So off I went. I'm still finding this whole 'sun in the south' thing pretty disorienting. I've always considered myself to have basically no sense of direction, but I must have, because it's totally out of whack now that the sun is in the wrong part of the sky. But I got there in the end. And the panda bit of the zoo is pretty informative, with a couple of purpose built rooms full of information on the conservation programme and the animals themselves. They have a strrangely jointed wrist that serves as a reversible thumb does in humans and they use it to grab the bamboo more easily. If Philip Pulman had gone with that idea instead of an actual reversible thumb for the bears in the His Dark Materials trilogy, they might have been more plausible.

The rest of the zoo was pretty sad. It must be soul-destroying for the keepers when all you've got to work with is a concrete floored concrete box to stick your animals in. It makes you realise how much better Orana Park is, with less animals but something at least approaching humane conditions for them to live in. Still, it was a delight to see the looks on people's faces when they saw some animal they'd never seen before. And the parents playing hide and seek in the trees with their little (three to four year old?) kid was pretty funny to watch too.

I escaped from the zoo with some sympathy for the animal liberationists, if only they were over here, and headed to the Black Bamboo Park adjoining the zoo. I was going to pass through there on my way to the Summer Palace, built overlooking a 1000+ year old man-made lake. However, I found myself getting drawn into the atmosphere of the park and ended up wandering around it for ages. By the time I'd finished lurking in the park, it was about time to start heading back, since New Year means everything's closing early. I arrived back in the nick of time, being able to grab something to eat from one of only a couple of places still open in the food court nearby.

Two more days in Beijing. After that, blog updates may be more infrequent (what a relief I hear you sigh) because Laura's been unable to connect to the net at her parents' place for some reason, so it might require a visit to an internet cafe unless everything's been sorted by the time I get there.