The Chinese treat their animals differently than what we are used to in Holland. Perhaps this scales with the living conditions of the people in each country, who knows.

We were quite shocked when we visited a Zoo in Guilin (it was part of the Seven Star Park we visited). The animals were kept in small concrete cells without anything to play with. They even had two great panda’s! These panda’s had a small walking area outside and a concrete cell inside. In other places in the park you could have a picture taken with monkeys or pay 5 RMB to have your picture taken on a swing with two live peacocks on it.

This evening we went to see the Cormorant fishermen here in Yangshou. These fishermen have Cormorant birds fish for them by tying a rope around their necks and having them catch fish like they normally would. When they catch a fish they can’t swallow it because of the rope so it gets stuck in their neck. The fisherman then gets the bird out of the water and gets the fish out of its throat.

The strangest thing however we found in the reet flute cave. For a fee of 10 RMB you could enter a “turtle cave” in which turtles lived which were over one thousand years old. The oldest turtle was supposedly over 1300 years old (yeah right). These turtles were put on small wooden tables, the Chinese would touch them for good luck and would rub coins and other things on them so that these coins would bring luck. Some also put money on the back of the turtles. Very very strange people…