Lions and Tigers and Bears, Taking a Siesta.

So it seems that China can join the long list of civilized countries which believe in the after-lunch nap. I think afternoon naps are lovely. Why, exactly, do we English-speaking people feel that working hard between noon and 2pm makes us more productive and hard-working than others?

Regardless, I was at the Beijing zoo one fine afternoon during vacation. It was in the 80s, sunny and summerlike. I'll admit, I was wearing much too many layers. You can take the Mainer out of Maine, but you can't convince her that she doesn't need a sweatshirt in April. It's enough that I'm not wearing a jacket.

The Beijing Zoo is a short, one-bus trip from my home base. The bus was not crowded at all, and I actually managed to get a seat, which is quite a treat, let me tell you. The zoo wasn't crowded, either, and I bought my ticket and wandered in without any difficulty. To see the animals and the pandas during the busy season is 20 kuai. Let me take another moment to marvel at the idea of a tourist season that begins in April and lasts until November. Really. To think, I thought Memorial Day to Columbus Day was stretching the summer season. But who am I kidding? It feels like summer, so let's call it summer.

The animals were feeling the heat. Or perhaps they were doing as the Romans do and doing a little afternoon xiuxi-ing.
As promised, here is a lion, settling down for a cat nap:
And here is a tiger, looking a lot like Bastet in the backyard sandbox, except moving even less:

Here, my dear sister and father, is your mascot, the black bear, snoozing away:

Amusingly, in the next bear enclosure, I think home to the Tibetan Brown Bear, there is a large note painted on the stone in Chinese. I'm pretty sure it says something along the lines of "Of course we would love your children, but when we eat too much our stomachs hurt, so please don't feed us again." I can't decide if it means don't let your children throw food to us, or don't let your children climb into our pen. I like the second meaning better.

Of course, no one goes to the zoo in Beijing without going to see the pandas. Panda, in Chinese, is da xiongmao, which literally is 'large bear-cat.' Apparently, they were supposed to be called 'maoxiong,' or 'cat-bears,' but the name was popularized during the transition from reading characters right-to-left to left-to-right, and the backwards reading became most common. More informative plaques told me that pandas can be considered bears, but some scientists put them in their own category. So, cat-like bears or bear-like cats, pandas are just too cute.

Alas, on the day of my visit, they were repairing/replanting the outdoor enclosures, so I saw the pandas in their inside spaces, behind glass. My camera does not get along with glass, so I have no pictures. I suppose I could stick in some from my 2006 trip to the zoo with none the wiser, but I shan't. Instead, watch this little video of a panda eating some bamboo that I took:

There was a German couple and their Chinese friend beside me as I watch this panda, and they were wondering whether pandas eat just the stalks of bamboo and not the leaves, as this panda was stripping the leaves and outer bark off entirely and throwing it aside. But if that was true, we couldn't use the wonderful grammar joke about pandas. You remember, that the panda "eats, shoots and leaves?"

Speaking of jokes, I learned another Chinese one today. It depends, as all the Chinese jokes I know, on a foreigner whose Chinese is a bit "chabuduo," as our head teacher would say (meaning, not quite right), and a word with two meanings in Chinese. Come to think of it, I'm a little worried that all the jokes I know are about math or grammar.

Now for something completely different: I am officially 78.5% finished knitting the essential parts of the Periodic Table. Sadly, I've run out of yarn, but on the plus side, recent measurements lead me to wildly hope the finished product might actually fit on a bed. Wouldn't that be nice?