On a recent visit to China, we decided as a family to visit the Chimelong Safari Park near Guangzhou, one of the largest safari parks in China and apparently one of the top 50 parks in the world. The Chimelong Safari Park forms part of the Chimelong Resort which operates under eight subsidiaries, namely Chimelong International Circus, Chimelong Water Park, Guangzhou Crocodile Park, Chimelong Paradise, as well as Chimelong Hotel, Xiangjiang Restaurant and Xiangjiang Restaurant.
We loved every minute of our visit to this amazing park - a park that covers an area of more than 2000 square meters and has 20,000 rare animals with more than 500 different species. These include 10 giant pandas, 50 koalas from Australia and more than 150 white tigers, Orang-utans from Malaysia, Asian elephants from Thailand and many more.
On our bucket list was a visit to the Panda enclosure, as coming from Africa, we have never seen a live panda in action:) We were not disappointed. We saw quite a few pandas and come very close to the ones in the Panda enclosure. They were very playful and interested in the visitors around them.
According to National Geographic Kids, these magnificent mammals are omnivores. They will occasionally eat small animals and fish, but 99 percent of their diet consists of bamboo. They eat up to 12 kilograms of bamboo daily and weigh between 75kg and 135 kg. In captivity, they grow to be 30 years old.
Here is a link to a video I took of the pandas at Chimelong Park. https://youtu.be/3Z8RidsMmcM
Chimelong Safari Park is the first park in China to introduce a self-drive tour. The self-drive tour allows tourists to watch wild animals while driving their own car around the park. We rather opted for the 3-kilometre cable car facility to get a bird’s eye view of all the animals in the park. https://youtu.be/8TBi9UwdhUE
The park also presents animal shows, including the elephant show, Journey to the West Theatre, White Tiger Show, and African animal performance. Chimelong Park is definitely a world-class facility and well worth a visit. We left the park at the end of the day with sore feet and happy hearts.To get to the park, you can take Subway Line No.3 to and get off at Hanxi Changlong Station, then get out of the station from Exit E and you will reach the pick-up point of Chimelong free shuttle bus, which will take you directly to the park. Visitors can also take Bus No 304, 562 to and get off at Chimelong Safari Park stop.
Remember you are not allowed to take food into the park, but there is ample food available inside for purchase.
I agree with Mahatma Gandhi who once said, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”.