Day 7 morning: Tai'shan Mountain and the Zoo

This was the day we were going to climb the mountain, Tai'shan. Looked out the window and it was raining! Found out the cable car which we had planned to take partway up was not running because of the weather. BUT it all turned out fine. We bought cheap rain ponchos from a couple of conveniently-situated vendors (i.e., crowding up to us as we got on the bus!). We figured we'd walk as far as we could. We trudged along through the rain. It was beautiful, green, smelled good. (We saw marijuana plants growing wild.) The walk was a gentle slope with steps every now and then. We kept going until we were soaked and decided to turn around and head back. Stopped at a Buddhist temple and paid our respects.

Then, slight change of plan. Han said we were near the zoo so we walked there to see the tigers. At first I was worried about whether the zoo would be awful (I don't generally like zoos because I hate to see the animals all caged up) but actually it was much better than I expected. The tigers have a lot of space to roam around and seem well cared for. And it was thrilling to see them because you can get VERY CLOSE. Basically there is just a fence and a ditch between you and them. The zoo staff took the opportunity of our visit to feed the tigers and that was a sight to see. The last photo doesn't do it justice but we were so close we could see down his huge throat! Beautiful animals, much bigger than I imagined. The white one is a Bengal(?) tiger. The orange ones are Siberian(?). (I might have it backwards. Does anyone know?)