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Published: June 28th 2010
Korean Tiger
Pyongyang ZooThe Pyongyang zoo is located on the North East outskirt of the city surrounded by hills covered with forest and fields. The road leading to it, a
massive 8 lines highway is absolutely empty…not much surprise here, as although the number of vehicles have increased in Pyongyang, most of them are not allowed to drive on Sunday so we had the road for ourselves (on both way!).
Didn’t really know what to expect either outside of the fact that some of the animals offered as a gift to the leader where displayed there. Somehow,
every outing is full of surprises and you never really know how the day will go and the visit to the zoo was no exception to the rule.
The first impression as we entered the zoo was pretty much guided
by the massive amount of concrete used pretty much everywhere from the large plaza at the entrance, to the artificial lake surrounded by "fish" made of cement & large fresco in stone/concrete. Not much of a green outing one might think, but as we walk pass this official entrance area on the left, the large path was replaced by a tinier one, going through a garden & trees…Much better already!
I will not go in details when it comes to the actual list of species you can see there as it would most like go on and on (the zoo is really quite large) but
here are a few highlights of the visit: Favourite of all…: the white tigers & Korean tigers (a very first for me), both are not usually commonly found in zoo
Unusual …: empty cages used to dry the laundry
Educational (and somehow unusual for an European)... : domestic animals (cats, dogs, hamster), poultry, pigeons…etc (many species of each were represented)
Experiencial …: horse riding within the zoo (ok, not every day that they get to see a non-accompanied foreigner on horse so the whole experience was not exactly discrete
but definitely fun!)
Strange …: the alligator highly protected behind plastic window, water and wire netting who didn’t move an inch nor close his wide open mouth for the entire five minutes we stared at him (still not sure whether he was dead or alive but seems that the latest was most likely)
Funny …: the two Korean gentlemen trying "discreetly" to be taken in picture next to me (one was coming close, pretending to stretch or look somewhere else each time I will look in his direction, while the other was trying to take the picture)
Interactive …: the way some species such as the bears & monkeys knew exactly how to impress the visitors with some tricks I honestly never saw before in order to get some food (which is provided by the zoo free of charge to visitors for them to feed the animals)
Highly trained …: pet dogs who performed at one of the show area. Yes, Korean dogs can "count" and do other tricks, not a fan of that kind of show normally but it was interesting to see which type of show was created for a public which remains essentially
local.
Heart warming …: the overall attitude of the locals toward us, opened and friendly, which contrasted very much with the usual "unsaid" rule where Koreans who are not colleagues, waitress, language teacher, cashier or diplomatic compound staff would normally not smile or speak to us. Somehow, got used to not initiate conversation or contacts outside of the "agreed" circle but as I wrote at the beginning of this blog I never cease to be surprised by the people here and
the way things can be radically different from one moment to an other… On that afternoon, people were pro-actively initiating the contact by smiling, asking where we were from, taking picture with us (including with our camera) or us showing some of the pictures we just took, truly heart warming!
All in all, the visit was
culturally interesting as it allowed us to discover an other facet of Pyongyang and its people while having a good time outdoor & seeing some interesting species.
Next week end … trip to the DMZ (border between the two Korea), cannot wait!
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Stephen Paul
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
great zoo!
Looks like a pretty nice zoo! The tigers are sooo beautiful... like Snow Tigers. Love the blog as well as the pictures. Cant wait to see the DMZ entry! Merci! :D