Shanghai Zoo and Natural History Museum

By Sally Franz

The day we choose to go to the Shanghai Zoo was overcast. You learn to wear a waterproof windbreakers or ponchos when traveling in China in the fall and of course a folding umbrella. (And you can use the umbrella for shade from the sun as well.) The Shanghai Zoo is in the Changning District of the city. There are 6,000 animals with many large animal houses and yards including of course pandas. The adult pandas have a lovely outside yard and an inside playground. There we watched them eat bamboo and fruit.

The reptile cages had alligators, large constrictors and an ominous small tree filled with vipers. I mean chock-a-block full. The stuff nightmares are made of. We watched an outside play yard for lions where one young lion took an old car tire, moved it across the yard, and sat in it. Next the King of the Jungle, or at least the courtyard, went and brought the tire back to the top of the hill and sat in it himself. Apparently this was a game of King of the Hill. In the giraffe house, a male calf standing about 12 feet high came up to the viewing window and started kissing it right where the children were standing. Turns out a fit of giggles is a universal language.

But I particularly liked the Butterfly Habitat because they were releasing newly hatched butterflies as we entered. Now as luck would have it my grandmother raised Monarchs and Spicebush Swallowtailed butterflies from eggs through chrysalis. As kids we learned how to coax butterflies onto our fingers to help them dry off their newly emerged wings and maybe even feed them sugar water before sending them on their way. Many of the butterflies being released that day were just falling to the floor. So with example only and no Chinese for the subtleties of helping the newly hatched creatures, I was able to pick up 20 or more and set them on people’s fingers, shoulders, and hair. The delight of watching people stand tree-still for photos, not really sure what to do next, was priceless.

The Shanghai Zoo is massive and cannot be covered in one day unless you bean very early and never stopped for ice cream. But what is the point of a zoo trip if you don’t stop for ice cream at least twice?

Just as we were ready to leave, it started to rain, perfect timing…almost. It misted, then it drizzled, then it poured, and finally it was a torrential downpour with no intention of stopping. Slight problem, we only had one motor scooter because we had come from different directions. So my daughter took her youngest home and my twelve-year-old grandson and my husband and I tried to get a taxi. I learned something that I already knew, but had forgotten. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Hades we were going to catch a cab in a big city in a deluge. You can double that chance if it is during a huge Holiday Week.

We all tried our best technique. We separated, we clung together. We waved, we whistled, we ran after any cab in hopes it was letting its fare off at a light. Finally we just walked the three miles home. But here is the thing, it was 70 degrees, a warm rain and the streets of Shanghai look like Paris. They are wide with massive sidewalks and mature trees all along the way. When we were too wet or tired to go on we ducked inside a mall, slipped the complimentary plastic sleeves over our umbrellas, and found a coffee or ice cream shop. Fortunately for me I lived in Portland, Oregon for a while so I learned how to see the rain as liquid sunshine. At the end of the day, we were fine and the rain was surely making the hippos happy at the zoo and I’m not sugar so I didn’t melt.

Sally Franz and her third husband live on the Olympic Peninsula. She has two daughters, a stepson, and three grandchildren. Sally is the author of several humor books including Scrambled Leggs: A Snarky Tale of Hospital Hooey and The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Menopause. She hosts a local radio humor segment, “Baby Boomer Humor with Sassy Sally”.