Tigers, Clowns, and Mountains: My Weekend in Guangzhou

The view from White Cloud Mountain

Hey everybody! So this post is about my weekend. Me and a couple of the girls decided to spend it in Guangzhou, which is about thirty minutes away from Zhongshan by speed train. It's got a lot of cool places to go to.

We got there on Friday and decided to do a little shopping. There was a street a few blocks down that had some shops and vendors. There I got the most delicious mango smoothie that I've ever had in my life. I'm not even kidding, it was so good. Anyway, we mostly chilled Friday evening. On Saturday,  we went to Chimelong Resort. It's this area that has a ton of attractions, such as a water park, amusement park, safari park, and a circus. They have a cool package deal where you can go to two of the attractions for a good price, so we went to the safari park and the circus.

Yep, I'm on an elephant. Be jealous. 

Let's talk about the safari park. The place was really nice. You know how some zoos have only one animal in the pen and it's pretty small. Here the pens were really large and they had more animals in them, so they could interact more. For example, they had a whole section dedicated to the tigers. I've never seen so many tigers; it was amazing. They also had a safari train that you could take and see animals in a more wilderness setting, which was pretty cool. So it was here that I fed a baby tiger, fed a giraffe, and rode an elephant. Yeah, that park was awesome. I got to feed this little snow tiger a bottle, which was absolutely adorable. And feeding the giraffe was pretty fun; the giraffe ate all the leaves off the branch I held out to it in one swipe, which surprised me a bit. As for riding an elephant, it's kind of hard. I felt like I was being thrown forward every time the elephant took a step. It was fun though, and the elephant had huge tusks! So overall, the safari park was really enjoyable and I got to do so many cool things there.

I love the presentation of this circus. It was incredible!

Now on to the circus. Holy cow, the circus was just incredible. I don't think I can describe it properly other than with the word spectacle. They had everything from clowns to tigers, to acrobats to motorcycle stunts man. Some of the feats those people pulled off were just mind-blowing. They also had these dancers in harnesses floating above and doing incredible moves. Plus the stage and set was just fantastic! Granted, I don't think I've actually been to a circus before so maybe I'm just awed because I'm a first-timer, but I still think it was pretty insane.

Sunday, we decided to go to White Cloud Mountain and do a bit of exploring and hiking. While the mountain itself isn't very high, the park is pretty big. We were there for about four hours, just walking around. I love all the different types of trees and plants on this mountain, especially since they're more of the tropical variety. I got some gorgeous pictures. It was so hot and humid that day, though. I don't think I've ever sweat that much before ever. It was crazy.

So there's my adventure in Guangzhou. I got to do some really cool things and I saw some incredible sights and performances. I'm definitely glad I went and had a bit of a last mini-vacation before I leave China. Well, that's it. Until later, folks!