Monday, June 20, 2011

China Post #34 Sun Asia Ocean/Polar World

This Saturday we headed to the Sun Asia Ocean World. It is really 3 aquariums and, what else, an amusement park all in one. We bought tickets to the Ocean World and the Polar World aquariums and made sure to steer clear of the amusement park.

At first these dolphins kind of scared Dylan, I think it was the teeth, but he eventually warmed up to them.
We got a late start so needed to find food to eat and wandered around the food stalls, though most were basically the same. Here is what was on the menu.
And.
Everything on a stick.

Here are the Coca-Cola table to eat at and apparently change you child's diapers too. Naturally the garbage can is conveniently located right below the table...
The aquariums were interesting. The Ocean World was themed around a submarine so everything was really dark and there was all sorts of piping and tubing running along the walls as well as loads of fake view ports.

Here we are looking into a "crashed UFO". It seems that aliens use toilets and watch TV the same as us, and now so do the fish.
One of the best things about the Ocean World is after you emerge from the "submarine". There is a 118 meter long tunnel that is under a tank.

Here are Linda and Dylan posing next to one of the numerous sea turtles.
And moving along through the tunnel. There was a moving walkway and a stationary one so you could ride to something you found interesting and step off.
I'm not sure this is a good idea. Or THIS might happen.
Now I don't really think this is a great idea, but hey they were out in the petting area so we took a turn. Dylan petting the young sea turtles.
We managed to see several shows, the first was the dolphin show which started out with this guy.
It was quite different than what you would expect in the US from an animal show in that it was more of a human performance supplemented by the animals. On top of that almost all the performers were not Chinese. Anyway the clown tossed out a few trinkets, one of which I managed to catch with some guy trying to climb over my back to get at it. Naturally Dylan got it and promptly lost it before we left the park. OH well.
On to the Polar World. This one was a bit depressing really, may of the animals were in really small enclosures, really just rooms. There were 3 arctic wolves, so pretty big animals, in a room not much bigger than a large bedroom, just pacing back and forth endlessly. Then there was the polar bear in a similar sized room. There were 4 arctic foxes in a smaller room that was furnished with a concrete sofa, bookshelf and a hamster wheel. It seemed as though the penguins were a bit on the warm side, they were all laying on the ice or standing with their arms out facing the fans, though it was obviously cool in the room since when they were fed the people were wearing down jackets.

There was a beluga show as well which was cool, though just see them was possibly better. Again, for such large animals the tank was small, but they were super interactive. They would swim down ad look at you through the glass and when someone else walked up they would turn to check them out too. They would follow some people along the side of the tank and react to things that you would do.
We only made it into the second half of the walrus and seal show, which was fine by me since the shows are really loud. Here the walrus is trying to pop a ballon before an audience participant can, I think the walrus won.
Out front of the Polar World in a moat filled with seals. For 10 yuan you can take a dish of small fish out and feed them. I figured hey for a dollar and a half, Dylan will never get to do that in the US, not with out some specific education anyway.
Later we even got a picture of the seal kissing Dylan, 30 yuan.

After seeing both aquariums we needed a snack. Dylan going to town on a chicken stick.
We headed back into the Polar World to catch the Beluga show after this.

Then I called the Shama, where we are staying and explained that I forgot the card for Brooklyn, the restaurant we were going to eat diner at. So one of the ladies at the front desk looked it up in the internet and I ran over to a nearby hotel where she told the lady at the desk there where it was and she wrote it down for me. Then I handed the paper to a cab driver and we made it to diner with no trouble.

All in all we had a good day out and Dylan certainly had a good time.

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