17 Tigers, 15 Bears

Today we visited a recreational area just outside of Nanjing, called the Pearl Stream. It is sort of a combination hiking, camping, amusement park with a zoo. It was not far away, only about an hour by bus. It is remarkable how the population density is very high in Nanjing, south of the Yangtze River, and becomes much lower, like the suburbs, just north of the River. The most notible thing we saw on the way was a group of beautiful Western style three story apartments, with stucco exteriors, and huge windows. There were probably 300 units spread over 10 acres and they were all completely empty. Someone on the bus said that they had heard that they'd been built, but they were so expensive that no one could afford them.

At the Pearl Stream, we walked along paved trails past the bumper cars and the roller coaster to see the source of the stream. The stream sort of seeps up from the stream bed, and people stand by the edge and clap, which makes more bubbles rise. I don't quite understand why.

We were then herded into the zoo area, and entered a large covered arena, where the stage area was set back over a twenty foot trench. We sat on plastic seats for about ten minutes, and then, from a stage made to look like cliffs, 17 tigers, 3 lions and their handlers emerged. The 17 tigers each sat on a riser, so there were two little mountains of tigers, going up and down. The three lions sat on their own risers in front of the tigers. The handlers had no whips, but they each held what looked and sounded (they sometimes rapped them on the concrete stage) like hollow aluminum sticks, about 4 feet long. they would prod the tigers with them when they weren't moving along.

The tigers walked on narrow walkways, walked around on top of huge balls, jumped through flaming hoops, and lay in a long row and rolled over simultaneously. The lions just sat there and looked lionesque. Tigers not actively engaged in tricks sat on their riser. I do not understand why none of the trainers was eaten. I do not understand why the tigers did not jump the barrier and eat the people.

We next walked past some tigers and bears on display in sort of 1970s style habitats (no bars, but sort of limited space) to a horse track, with covered stands, and a dirt track, and then a concrete track inside the dirt track. There we saw a sort of Chinese play with trick riders, who were the best I've seen since I was at the Calgary Stampede as a kid. Then they had trained bears. The bears were Chinese bears, sort of thin and their faces looked different from North American bears. They had long claws, and seemed much more stupid than the tigers.

The bears rode bicycles and balanced on balls and one balanced on a motorbike on a high wire, and a lady was suspended under neath. The bears were led around by rings through their noses. The Chinese crowd seemed to enjoy both shows very much, but I think the Americans were by and large mortified.

The hit of the day was when the kids, and parents who could not escape, rented a bamboo raft and used long bamboo poles to push up and down the stream. We had two rafts lashed together with wire, and four poles. I tried to hand a pole to Sarah, but she looked horrified, so I gave her my purse, and took a corner. It was hot, sweaty, involved several near misses of other bamboo rafts pushed by other urbanites, and was altogether a great deal of fun. The bamboo rafts were slightly leaky, nobody had a life preserver, and the water was noxious. James, because he is a boy, was jumping from one raft to the other, because he did not care that I might have to fish him out. Sarah, who has a greater sense of self-preservation, sat with the other two girls on a narrow bench at the end of the raft and looked nervous. Nobody made us sign a waiver, either. When we successfully docked after our little voyage, the other members of our group who did not go out applauded.

As we were walking out to the bus, one woman said she bet my colleagues at work would have been surprised to see me out there poling along on a bamboo raft. I told her that I spent four years in the Navy, and had done some skydiving, so I didn't think my colleagues would be particularly surprised that I could pole a bamboo raft. I was not always middle-aged.