Our Spring Outing: Adventures at the Shanghai Zoo

In China, people view outings as a time for professional bonding.  Like many companies, Chinese public schools have entire school field trips to various museums, parks, and other interesting places twice a year.  In years past I have taken this day to create my perfect day, however this year I enjoyed the Shanghai zoo with my first graders.

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about visiting the Shanghai Zoo.  Some of my friends reported the zoo was a little small, and the animals were skinny and caged.  My hometown, St. Louis, has a world-class zoo so it takes much to zoologically impress me. We had a great opportunity to see many different animals at the zoo, but I’ve seen better.  At least the class had a great opportunity to practice their real world vocabulary.

Here are some highlights from the trip.

We made the trip from the school to the zoo in a comfortable charter bus.  The zoo also has a metro stop on line 10.

I wasn't kidding when I said the entire school went on a field trip to the zoo.  We had to wait a few minutes after we arrived to enter the zoo.

The grand paparazzi were there to document the entire trip with studio grade video cameras.  

Fortunately, the kids were extremely well behaved, and excited to see the animals.

While we were waiting to enter the zoo, I bumped into my second graders...

and my third graders!

The zoo had some exotic animals like this ostrich...

...and these anorexic looking flamingos.

I was terrified that we might lose a child on the trip, so I spent the majority of the time counting first grade heads.  A chaperone trip to the zoo is much different than a recreational trip to the zoo. 

We kept walking and saw some bears...

...and a panda.  Seeing this guy made me miss San in Chengdu. 

Halfway through the trip we took a picnic break.  Since the kids normally eat school lunches, it was very interesting to see what they packed in their lunch sacks.   

I was really happy to learn that I teach a few shutterbugs!  It was great to see their pictures after lunch.

About an hour after we ate, we hiked to see more creatures.  I kept silently praying, "Please, Lord.  Don't let me lose any of my kids."  

The zoo has a very interesting collection of cement animals...

and live emus...

...and a hippo... 

...and elephants... 

...and giraffes...

...and zebras.

We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but we had a great time and no children were lost!

Long story short, if you are looking for a small zoo with some interesting carnival rides, check out the Shanghai Zoo.