A Summer in Harbin: Post the Ninth: It's Grrrrrreat!

Meet Panthera tigris. Chinese: 老虎, tiger.

Having spent the past several hours looking at classes for the next two semesters, I am quite glad to take a break. This weekend has been quite eventful. Some thoughts:

You Drive Me Carzy (Crazy): A CET classmate turned 21 yesterday so we went to KTV (karaoke) last night to celebrate properly. Name of the establishment? Baby Gaga. The four story building was decked out in ultra modern (see Ikea) furniture and fixings: mirrors lined the walls and reflected flashy music videos shown on ceiling-mounted TV sets while huge glass beads hung from every possible fixture. The walls that weren't covered in mirrors showed many pictures of Lady-Gaga lookalikes in get-ups that Gaga Xiaojie would undoubtedly wear. Unclear if Ms. Gaga knows that she has her own karaoke joint in Harbin, China; as the place hasn't been closed down for blatant intellectual property rights violations, I'm going to go ahead and guess not. Anyways, it was a fun experience, especially for our Justin Bieber-loving neighbors (again, unclear how a group of ten 30-somethings knew every word to "Somebody to Love").

Siberian Tiger Park: I don't care what you're doing this summer or where you are doing it; your summer isn't as cool as the hour I just spent at the Tiger Park in Harbin. The park is a reserve for the first-class protected Siberian Tiger, an endangered species of feline that is almost extinct in the wild. This morning, a small group of us went to the park to go on their safari tour to see the tigers as well as some tiger-lion (liger!) crosses and other big cats. Unlike at other animal parks, the Tiger Park safari is a bit non-traditional: when purchasing their tickets, guests can also purchase chickens ($9), goats ($100), and cows (~$10000000000) to feed to the animals. Those of you who don't like animal cruelty or nature shows or watching things eat other things should probably skip to the next bullet point. Basically what happens is that each visitor is placed on a large safari bus (which is really a converted tour bus with the windows replaced by wire grates). If anyone on the bus bought something to feed the tigers, a large truck covered with metal plating and wire grates (see INTENSE) appears when the bus reaches the feeding area. The truck parks a short distance away from the tigers and the driver either a) shoves a chicken out of the window and onto the roof of the car or b) tips the back part of the truck to send a goat/cow sliding to the ground. A feeding frenzy ensues and, in the blink of an eye, the poor sacrificial animal has passed on to the next life via the maw of a tiger (or six). The whole process lasts about 30 seconds but it's probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me so far this summer. I had misgivings about going to the park since it's a little barbaric (purchasing undoubtedly mistreated livestock to sacrifice, cheering when the tiger kills its prey, taking pictures with a tiger cub while its mother freaks out nearby) and the show is really just a money-raising enterprise. On the other hand, the Siberian Tiger Park has reversed the decline of the cats and is helping to reintroduce them into the wild as a result of the funds pouring in, so you could also say the feeding is helping to fund the recovery of the tigers. I'll let you think about that while you look at some pictures.

One of the many tiger statues in the parking lot. The real ones are a lot scarier.

Mature tiger = FIERCE.

These were sleepy.

The king will see you now.

Oh, you know, just chillin' on some cigarette butts and plastic wraps that the Chinese tourists have kindly thrown down into my pen.

Here are some (well, one of each) before and after pictures of the chicken we purchased (out of 20 something people on a bus, leave it to the four Americans to pay money to kill an animal that we didn't eat ourselves).

WARNING: GRAPHIC