ZOO IN CHINA

There's a little temple on the top of that mountain in the background. I really wanted to know what was in it, but I didn't know how to get up there.
That big hole in the mountain causes it to look like an Elephant, so they call it Elephant Mountain. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be the space under its neck between it's front legs and trunk, or the space between the front and back legs. 

These monkeys would reach through the bars and take food from our hands. It was lots of fun to throw food up high and watch them do acrobatic feats to catch it. I guess all that fun is why they possess huge guts.

Is this an emu? Heck, I don't know. I know it only as "weird ugly ostrich." I wondered if it was a flesh-eater. That's as close as I dared to reach. Maybe it was harmless. I'm only sure of one thing: it's huge soulless alien eyes sent shivers down my spine. Its beak was black (the color of evil,) and the beak was constantly open, as if ready to snap at something at any moment. 

No one told me this but I'm certain getting bit by one of these weird ugly ostriches would be as painful as having vise-grips twist my flesh off. Perhaps with all the emu-like fur on my arm, he could have thought I was family and welcomed me into his clan. Maybe if I got closer, it would have given me a big loving hug, but I wasn't about to find out.

There were lots of these all over the place.

I've been flip-flopping on the idea of owning a monkey. If I had one like this, I think I'd be really happy. This one could do tricks and it dressed in clothes. 

These pictures are from GuiLin, China. I liked their zoo a lot. If I wanted to, I could have reached into the cages and touched any of the animals, and I mean ANY of them! They had bears and crocodiles and any number of violent limb-removing animals, and the only thing keeping me from touching them was my common sense. 

In USA there would be glassed-in barriers with moats around the cages making them unattainable. I kind of liked all the freedom I had in the China zoo. I could walk right up to the edge of a pit of babboons, and wasn't restricted by fences or barriers. I was protected only by my will to live.