How to become a panda guardian in China. Beijing Zoo: impressions, useful information. Impressions from visiting the Beijing Zoo

is one of the must-see attractions in Beijing. First of all, to see the big (giant) panda - one of the symbols and symbol of WWF. And also an Oceanarium with the longest tunnel in Asia.

Beijing Zoo was founded in 1906, during the reign of Emperor Guangxu. It was originally called "Garden of Ten Thousand Animals" 万牲园 Wanshenyuan, and in 1955 received its current name “Beijing Zoo” 北京动物园 Beijing Dongyuan. The area of 86 hectares is home to more than 5 thousand animals belonging to 450 species. In addition, the Beijing Zoo is laid out in accordance with the principles of classical Chinese gardens: there are ponds, a stream with graceful bridges across it, willows near the water, rocks, etc.

Beijing Zoo plan

Several thematic sections have been created on the territory of the zoo: the Giant Panda Pavilion, the Hill of Monkeys, the Mountain of Bears, the Hill of Lions and Tigers, the Lake of Waterbirds, the African Zone, the Giraffe Aviary, the Pavilion of the Golden Monkeys, etc. Various animals are bred here, and a lot of scientific and educational work is carried out .

The zoo is popular among both Beijing residents and tourists. Of course there are a lot of children here. There is a ban on visitors feeding animals, but it is often violated.

Let's start our acquaintance with the zoo with Giant Panda Pavilion. You can read more about this funny animal in the post. Now we'll see where she lives. This is a large pavilion. During the cold season, pandas are kept inside, and in warm weather they walk in open enclosures. This is where the most people are. And the pandas, of course, are tired of such attention.

Panda eats bamboo

There are several sculptures near the Giant Panda Pavilion.

Sculpture - panda

There are a lot of people inside the pavilion. Everyone is trying to see and photograph these animals.

Zookeeper entertains a panda

There are wide roads throughout the zoo. There are signs everywhere in Chinese and English languages. Souvenir shops, cafes and, of course, clean toilets are open to visitors.

One of the alleys at the zoo

Bizarrely shaped stones

Tigers, lions and other predatory cats live in a pavilion called

Pavilion "Hill of Lions and Tigers"

On the other side of the pavilion there is giant statue tiger

Another theme park — Australian.

By big channel, which divides the zoo's territory into two parts, boats rush around - an attraction for thrill-seekers.

Channel at the zoo

There are also remains of ancient buildings in the Beijing Zoo.

Antique steps

Another very cute inhabitants of the zoo that will not leave anyone indifferent are giraffes.

Although the animals cannot be fed, as the signs warn, both children and adults feed them by hand.

A boy hands a cabbage leaf to an oryx

Oryx's serious look

The Beijing Zoo also has a green area where you can relax and sit on the grass.

Very popular among children and adults Elephant Pavilion.

Also located in the Beijing Zoo (there are three in total in Beijing).

The oceanarium has a dolphinarium where dolphin shows are regularly held.

This is a zoo in Beijing. Here you can see many rare animals that cannot be found in our zoos.

Information on visiting Beijing Zoo

Directions:动物园站 Beijing Zoo metro station, line 4.

Ticket price: 15 yuan (April - October); 10 yuan (November - March); pensioners and students - 8 and 5 yuan depending on the time of year. Panda Pavilion - 5 yuan. Oceanarium - 130 yuan (seniors and students - 70 yuan). Children under 120 cm tall are free.

The Beijing Zoo was built on the site of the Guangshan Temple under the direction of the Imperial Order in 1906, and originally consisted of a zoo, botanical garden and experimental farm Agriculture Qing Dynasty since with total area 1.5 hectares. It is the earliest zoo opened to the public in China. It is also the birthplace of China's modern zoo, botanical gardens and museums.
During the Qing Dynasty, the zoo was named Wansheng Garden (Garden of 10 Thousand Animals), then renamed Beijing West Park in 1950. At that time, the park collected many rare animals from different parts of China, including spruce crossbills (common crossbill, a forest songbird), redpolls (also a songbird of the finch family), brambling birds, waxwings, eagles, turkeys, gray cranes, deer, wolves and leopards. In addition, in February 1953, 48 animals of 10 species were brought into the park from abroad, including polar bears, white foxes, American lions, and yellow vultures. In 1955, Beijing West Park was officially renamed Beijing Zoo.
Due to the growing importance of cultural exchange between China and other countries in the world, Beijing Zoo has been significantly increasing the number of animals since the 1970s, and many animals that are imported from other countries often appear on view at Beijing Zoo, including the serow. mammals) from Japan, lions from Africa, flamingos from Chile, beavers and rhinoceroses from South America, tapirs from Central America, gorillas from Malaysia and even the common horned fish (tropical ray-finned fish) from Caribbean Sea. At the same time, a number of rare animals of China are introduced by the Chinese government to the United States, Japan, France, Great Britain, Spain, Nepal, Australia and Sri Lanka, including giant pandas, Japanese cranes (Ussuri crane, Manchurian crane), white-faced deer and white swans.

Beijing Zoo today

Currently, Beijing Zoo covers an area of 90 hectares and houses more than 10,000 animals of 500 species. More than 5 million visitors from all over the world visit the zoo every year. Based on the principle of "Developing education and protection at the same time", Beijing Zoo acts as business card Beijing for foreign guests of the capital of China, and is also one of the key cultural units of China, which is under state protection.
Today, Beijing Zoo has become a comprehensive zoo with scientific research, education and protection, cultural communications, scientific dissemination of knowledge, cultural relics and tourism combined into one, where children seek natural knowledge and adults pursue their long-lost interests. The doors of the Beijing Zoo are open to everyone from all over the world.
At the beginning of May 2018, the number of visitors to the zoo exceeded 121,000 people per day!
The zoo is located relatively close to the city center, so you can easily get to it by taxi or metro. You can read about Beijing taxi.
The main object of the zoo for which people go to the Beijing Zoo is the panda. At the Beijing Zoo you can see large representatives of the bamboo bear.

Beijing Zoo – 北京动物园 How to get there on your own

Address: 137 Xizhimen Outer St, DongWuYuan, Xicheng Qu, Beijing Shi, China, 100037
In Chinese: 北京市西城区动物园西直门外大街137号邮政编码: 100037
How to get there: taxi or metro. Metro station Beating Zoo(Blue line 4) outputs C1, C2
Working hours: April 1 – October 31: 7:30-18:00
November 1 – March 31: 7:30-17:00
Entry fee: The ticket price (including panda ticket) during the main season is 19 yuan
out of season (November to March) the cost is 14 yuan.
If you get hungry, you can find a restaurant serving Russian cuisine not far from the zoo.

Map. How to get to the Beijing Zoo.

"Good afternoon. We are sending our son to study in China. The list of documents includes such an item as a power of attorney for guardianship of a minor. We need a translation into Chinese and state stamps. authorities, consular departments in Moscow and the consulate. We don’t know how to draw up a power of attorney correctly, because the university doesn’t provide a sample. Have you made such documents before?”

Valeria, Rostov-on-Don

Good afternoon, Valeria. Yes, in our practice there have been cases when it was necessary to issue a power of attorney for the care of a minor, or in other words, a power of attorney for guardianship in China.

Such a document is always required if you are applying to study in China. foreign citizen under 18 years of age. The student's parents must draw up a power of attorney for an adult Chinese citizen who will act as the student's guardian during the student's studies. Once the letter is notarized, it must be certified by the Chinese embassy.

By checking several official websites of Chinese universities, you can find the so-called applicant sheets, which contain a list of documents required for admission to the university. Interestingly, in all state universities this list is the same and one of the items is the provision of a power of attorney.

Excerpt from the applicant's sheet:

Phrase “The documents should be notarized by the Chinese Embassy in the applicant’s country” means that the documents must be certified by the Chinese Embassy in the applicant's country.

Expert advice:
A power of attorney for guardianship in China is only required if the student is a minor. Therefore, if the applicant is not yet 18 years old, in any case you need to issue a power of attorney and legalize it at the Chinese Embassy in Moscow. Or wait until you reach the age of majority and enter China without such a power of attorney.

How to draw up a power of attorney for guardianship in China?

A power of attorney for guardianship in China can only be drawn up by a Russian notary.
The power of attorney is drawn up in the presence of both parents of the child.
It is recommended to include in the power of attorney the details of the parents’ international passports, if any.
The guardian must be a citizen of the People's Republic of China.
The power of attorney specifies which university the student will study at.
Typically, a power of attorney is issued for a specific period. But in the case of a power of attorney for guardianship in China, it would be more correct to write down the wording “until the age of majority”.

Power of attorney for guardianship in China: legalization

After drawing up the power of attorney, you must:

Make a translation into Chinese and have the translation certified by a notary.
Only translation into Chinese is suitable for certification at the Chinese Embassy. If you need a translation into English, you are allowed to translate into two languages at once.
A notarized copy bound with a notarized translation must be certified by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. .
Next, the document is certified by the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

While in Beijing, travelers often go for a walk to the local zoo 北京动物园 (běi jīng dòng wù yuán), which is considered the oldest and largest in the Middle Kingdom. Just imagine, in 2008 he celebrated his centenary! During our visit to the capital in the summer of 2015, we also decided to visit it, and I’ll tell you what came of it in this article.

Impressions from visiting the Beijing Zoo

The territory of the zoo is a large landscaped park, in which, in addition to enclosures and pavilions with animals, there are beautiful alleys with flower beds and sculptures, lakes and lotus ponds, as well as gazebos and interesting Chinese buildings.

But, of course, we went there not just to walk around the park, but to get acquainted with various representatives of the animal world, of which there are about 500 species. The zoo features not only rare and unusual Chinese animals, but also specimens from all over the world. And its main advantage was the pavilion with pandas.

I love animals very much and don’t have a very good attitude towards keeping them in captivity, which is why I don’t like visiting such places. But I was sure that the Beijing Zoo had to be at its best, after all, the capital of China. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met. The territory of the zoo is really large and beautiful, the diversity of the animal world is also impressive, but at the same time there are more than enough disadvantages.

Firstly, I was upset by the conditions in which the animals were kept, and secondly, I didn’t like the behavior at all Chinese tourists and their attitude towards animals. Most of the enclosures were small, cramped and dirty, and the animals looked tired and unkempt. Also, despite the fact that there are warning signs everywhere about what not to do, the Chinese behave worse than wild animals. They throw inedible food at the animals: chips, savory snacks, plastic bottles; they beat their fists on the glass of the enclosures, trying to attract attention; they scream loudly, stick their hands through the bars of cages, litter everywhere, etc. The attitude towards foreigners here is the same as towards representatives of the animal world.

We observed the following picture: a group of Chinese, seeing us, shout “hello”, then with the same words try to reach the monkeys. Foreigners here are also like exhibits, with which everyone takes pictures and points their fingers. For some reason, when visiting other attractions in Beijing, we encountered less of this behavior. So the impression turned out to be a little spoiled, but perhaps someone will have better luck.

Beijing Zoo area

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a map in English, but in order to get an idea of the structure of the park, you can also use the Chinese one. It shows the location of the enclosures and the main animals that you can meet here. She will also help you understand park infrastructure, such as where to eat or find a restroom.

Navigating inside the zoo will not be difficult; all the main inscriptions and signs are written in two languages: Chinese and English. As for animal diversity: even if you have been to such places many times, there are several animals that live only in China and which I definitely advise you to get acquainted with. First of all, this is, of course, a giant panda. Her pavilion is probably the most visited place in the entire zoo.

Be prepared that not only cute and clumsy bears will be waiting for you here, but also crowds of visitors and, most likely, you will have to show all your arrogance to get closer to the fence of the enclosure.

Pandas are really very funny, but we weren’t so interested here, especially after visiting the panda breeding center in , where we admired them a lot, and which I highly recommend to everyone. In addition to pandas, the golden snub-nosed monkey, the small red panda, the Tibetan yak, the giant salamander and the red-footed ibis deserve attention - all of them are listed in the Red Book and are unique animals.

There are elephants, hippos, rhinoceroses, kangaroos, tapirs, anteaters, various felines, many species of monkeys, bears, antelopes, a small terrarium and various types of birds. True, not everyone can be seen, for example, we were in the summer, and many animals simply hid from the heat and from annoying tourists.

I liked the enclosures with giraffes, where you can not only look at them up close, but also feed them practically by hand.

There are also zebras, which you can even pet if they are in the mood for it).

So there really is something to see! I just hope that the zoo will soon be updated and conditions for the animals will become better.

Opening hours and ticket prices

The zoo is open daily, but opening hours vary depending on the season. The schedule looks like this:

High season: from April 1 to October 31, open from 7:30 to 18:00.
Low season: from 1.11 to 31.03 - from 7.30 to 17:00.

Ticket price

Entrance to the zoo is not expensive at all. There are several suggestions:

a simple ticket will cost $3 (20 yuan),
a separate fee for visiting the pavilion with pandas (大熊猫馆 dàxióngmāo guǎn) is $0.75 (5 yuan),
entrance to the pavilion with penguins is another $1.5 (10 yuan),
for $6 (40 yuan) you can buy a ticket that includes entrance to the zoo, panda pavilion and boat ride (the boat goes to Summer Palace Emperor).

How to get to the Beijing Zoo

Beijing Zoo is located near the city center. On the map below I have marked not only the location of the park itself, but also several other famous attractions of the city that are popular with tourists.

The Beijing Zoo is located at: 西城区西直门外大街137号, (Xizhimen Outer Street 137, Xicheng District, Beijing). To get to it, you can use one of the methods suggested below.

Metro

In my opinion, the most convenient and cheapest way to get to the zoo is by metro. We drove to it from the main square of the city - Tiananmen, the route can be seen on the following map. I will say that it won’t be difficult to navigate the metro, all the signs are in English, and the rest of the trip is quite comfortable: the stations are new, the trains are modern. The only negative is the large number of people at any time of the day.

If you decide to use this method, you need to go to Beijing Zoo subway station, aka Dong Wu Yuan/动物园 (which is Line 4), and then follow the signs to exit B, which is located at south gate. Once you go up the street, you can easily see the ticket office and the entrance.

By taxi

For those who are afraid of getting lost in such a metropolis as, or just want to get there in comfort, you can always use a taxi.

Most cars are equipped with a meter, and the prices for trips around the city are as follows: landing and the first 3 km cost $1.95 (13 yuan), each subsequent km costs $0.34 (2.3 yuan). Thus, knowing the distance from you to your destination, you can calculate approximate taxi costs. To get to the zoo, you need to say 'Dong Wu Yuan' or show the driver the name in Chinese.

By bus

You can also arrive at your destination by city buses No. 27, 87, 105, 107, 111, 360, 347, 362, 534, 714, 563, 608, 632; the desired stop is called Dong Wu Yuan Stop/动物园站. But I would not recommend this option to those who do not know Chinese, since the Chinese announce and write the names of stops on buses only in their native language.

On October 17, 1993, Beijing Zoo and Hong Kong Pexland International Ltd signed a contract to build a modern aquarium in the capital. It opened to the public in 1999

Show with scuba divers

Beijing Aquarium (Beijing Haiyangguan - Beijing Aquarium) is located in the northern part of the zoo near the northern gate. When you enter the Beijing Zoo through this gate, you see a huge building in the form of a white and blue shell in an ocean of trees and flowers. This is the Beijing Aquarium. It covers an area of 12 hectares and is the largest land-based aquarium in the world. It presents more than 1000 species of sea and river inhabitants.

The aquarium is divided into seven parts:

Rainforest Adventure Rainforest Adventure features winding trails, cascading waterfalls, babbling streams and architectural details that make visitors feel like they've stepped into the Amazon jungle. There are 22 aquariums in this area, containing about 100 different species of river fish collected from the rivers tropical forests. These include parrotfish, elephant seals, giant salamanders and sea worms. Colorful Beach After the jungle you will come to Colorful Beach. This is an imitation of a 48-meter coastline . Here you can touch sea urchins

, sea anemones, starfish, hermit crabs and horseshoe crabs.

Beijing Aquarium Shark Wharf Shark Wharf is a unique hall among its kind. Sharks can be seen here open water . Here you can also watch how scuba divers swim among sharks, feed them and dance with sharks. There is an opportunity to do all this yourself under the guidance of a scuba diver trainer. Rare Chinese Sturgeon Hall As the name suggests, the Rare Chinese Sturgeon Hall is home to the unique Chinese sturgeon. This hall recreates the habitat of the Chinese sturgeon on the Yangtze River. These fish lived during the time of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. Dinosaurs disappeared, but sturgeons, thanks to their extraordinary vitality, still exist today. They are called the water giant panda. In this room you can watch how scuba divers feed these huge freshwater creatures. Wonders of Coral Reefs The next zone is Wonders of Coral Reefs. This is a tunnel complex of 33 aquariums displaying colorful fish from seas around the world. You start with, South China Sea, go west

, sea anemones, starfish, hermit crabs and horseshoe crabs.

Whales and Dolphin Hall In the Whales and Dolphin Hall, killer whales, sea lions and dolphins swim calmly with each other. Visitors can watch them through two windows in the wall.

Marine Theater (Marine Mammal Pavilion) This theater seats 3,000 spectators and is a venue for performances involving marine animals. Here, trained sea lions imitate clumsy seals and dance with their trainers, and smart dolphins perform ballet, jump out of the water to get a ball suspended in the air and paint abstract pictures. The most impressive thing is when two dolphins lift a trainer to a great height on their noses, as if they were launching a rocket.