Day 25 - Shanghai Zoo, SWFC Observatory and Chinese Opera

I went directly to the Shanghai Railway station to book my ticket to Hangzhou. It's nice that this railway station has an English speaking booth. It makes my life way easier. It's quite a cheap train ride, only 63Y each way.

The next stop was the Shanghai Zoo. Of all places you would think it would be easily accessible by public transit but it really isn't a few buses go there but no one could tell me where I could catch the bus. I decided to go to the nearest subway station and take a cab from there. This zoo is huge and has more green space than I have ever seen. There were people picnicking and had set up tents all over the place. The zoo admission was 30Y and the actual site of the zoo was built in 1954 on what used to be an old golf course. I don't think much has changed since it has opened. I saw elephants chained up and the animal enclosures were very close to humans. So close that people were throwing food into the enclosure with the bears. They were the most obese bears I've ever seen. They were expecting to be fed and were begging like dogs at the dinner table. Quite sad actually. So I figured since I was in China the most important thing to see here are the Pandas. I disappointed at the fact there were only 2 of them. They were also filthy and in a glass enclosure. I figured for a Chinese zoo there should be more and better taken care of.

I then went to the SWFC Observatory which is the tallest building in the world at 100 floors and 492 meters. It cost 150 Y and took 2 hours to line up to get to the top floor. It felt like the line ups would never end. But I thought I should go up since I would probably regret it in the future it I didn't go. When I finally made it to the top floor the view was incredible. Parts of the floor were glass so you could take a look down at the ground below. Unfortunately I only stayed up here for 15 mins because I needed to get to the Chinese Opera.

The Opera was held in a Theatre called Yifu Theatre on Fuzhou rd by Peoples Square. It was interesting to say the least. It was more of a showcase than a full opera which was good because I was able to experience all type of opera from guys in suits standing there and singing to people in traditional costumes partaking in skits. However, the bad part was that the show lasted 3 hours. I was dying to get out of there.