There's that famous expression...don't judge a book by its cover. In Beijing the saying should go...don't judge a restaurant by its bitter goose head platter. We've had more than our share of exotic food, and it has been a delicious adventure. The Peking duck at Beijing Roast Duck Restaurant (Dongcheng district) was divine. I never thought fatty duck skin could be a delicacy, but it is! Even though I'm a conservative customer, I've eaten dishes from sweet red bean glutinous rice dumpling to some unidentifiable fried balls on a stick that we affectionately nicknamed "squirrel faces." Of course, there's always KFC and McD's to get you through the week when you're feeling overwhelmed by chicken kidneys, heads, and paws!

Seeing the incredible variety of animals served at restaurants is incredible. Even if you're a vegetarian you have to respect the chef's ability to prepare every organ and limb of an animal to sell. Waste not want not. However, I am less impressed with the treatment of animals BEFORE they make it to the dinner table. Actually, what I'm trying to get at here is the animals at the Zoo. The Beijing Zoo is a disturbing animal prison where people regularly throw trash at the inmates. Check out this photo of the alligator. That's actually a piece of trash ON his body.

This was not the worst of it. Tigers, lions, and jaguars isolated in small concrete cells with prison bars paced back and forth while hordes of Chinese (I assume) tourists shouted taunts to incite roars or hisses. "Bear hill" consisted of three concrete trenches for the polar, brown, and mongolian bears to walk around. These trenches were littered with garbage and several onlookers from above would squirt water at the bears. Only the Pandas had an exhibit that didn't make your stomach turn. Actually, correction...the common raccoon had a really sweet little environment. Much more luxurious than you would expect for an animal so "common" to Americans.  All in all, it was outrageous, and I mean that in the true sense of the word. I am outraged. This Zoo is what you would expect if you went back 100 years in a time machine. Even worse than the artificial habitats, was the behavior of the spectators. There was absolutely no respect for the animals. We saw a screaming crowd scare a tiger into running out of his wading pool to a steel door on the other side of his enclosure and paw frantically at the door to find a place to hide. The same behavior was seen in the tigers indoors pawing at the steel doors to escape the shouting hordes. The only animals that seemed content with their environment were the rodents, but, as we all know, rodents will live just about anywhere with food.

One last interesting note, the extensive petting zoo included ungulates of all shapes and sizes (I never thought I would actually pet a gazelle!) but also all the different breeds of dogs! Having raised a beagle I found it strange to see a few of them at the zoo!