Shanghai Zoo

Shanghai Zoo is located in No.2381 Hongqiao Road, Changning District, Shanghai. It is close to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. The zoo was founded in 1954, formerly known as the West Park. Shanghai Zoo belongs to a large national-level zoo, covering an area of 743,000 square meters. There are more than 400 species of animals on display, and the building area of the display is 47,237 square meters. It honors to be one of the national top ten zoos, as well as the second largest city zoo in China.

The original Shanghai zoo is a golf club. Then the club is transformed into a zoo in 1954. After half a century of development the Shanghai Zoo has been develop into one of the best environmental gardens in Shanghai. The zoo collects and displays more than 6,000 animals, among which are 600 Chinese animals, including the giant panda, golden snub-nosed monkey, South China tiger, hoopoe, black bulbul, scimitar-horned oryx, great hornbills and Bactrian camels. Animals from other parts of the world include, the chimpanzee, giraffe, polar bear, kangaroo, gorilla, ring tailed lemur, common marmoset, spider monkey, african wild dog, olive baboon, mandrill, Canadian lynx and maned wolf. The zoo is continuously establishing and enhancing the animal enclosures so as to offer much better conditions for the animals and a enjoyable feel for tourists.

The initial golf course design and style has been essentially maintained. There are a total of 100,000 trees with almost 600 varieties rooted in the zoo. The green regions and grass lawns cover up an area of 100,000 square meters. The zoo efforts to produce an environmentally-friendly surroundings for the animals - the 'Swan Lake' with its natural reed clumps and trees offering shade for pelicans, geese, black swans, night herons and other birds, is a excellent instance of this.

The Shanghai Zoo offers areas for enjoyment and amusement, opportunities for tourists to improve their understanding of the numerous creatures and brings together this with technological and specialized investigation to enable people to get a better understanding and preserve animals. Since the zoo was set up it has been sponsor to over 150,000,000 visitors. The goal of the Shanghai Zoo is to have tourists depart with a much better knowledge of and gratitude for the wildlife and their surroundings.
 

What to See at Shanghai Zoo

The Shanghai Zoo is divided in to five animal areas: Amphibian Zone(Amphibians, reptiles and fishes), Birds Zone, Carnivores Zone, Herbivores Zone and Primates Zone.
 

Amphibian Zone

Entering the Shanghai Zoo, you will first see the Amphibian Zoo. At the Amphibian Zoo, you will see Chinese cobra, Aldabra giant tortoise, Chinese Alligator and Chinese giant salamander.
 

Birds Zone

At the Birds Zone, you can see ostrich, peafowl, flamingo, mandarin duck, red-crowned crane, African penguin, macaw, bar-headed goose, etc.
 

Native Animal Zone

At the Native Animal Zoo, you can see South China Tiger, leaopard, leopard cat, oriental stork, Chinese water deer, raccoon dog, etc.
 

Carnivores Zone

At the Carnivores Zone, you can see giant panda, Chinese red panda, South China tiger, Sun bear, Eurasian lynx, lion, etc.
 

Giant Pandas

Though Chendgu is the hometown of giant pandas, you can also see the giant pandas in Shanghai Zoo. If you do not plan to visit Chengdu and want to see the giant pandas in Shanghai, you can choose the Shanghai Zoo.

South China Tiger

South China Tiger, also known as Chinese tiger, is the unique tiger in China. The number of the existing South China Tiger is the least subspecies of the six tigers. And their endangered situation is worse than giant pandas. And you can see the South China Tiger at Shanghai Zoo. Shanghai Zoo started to feed South China Tiger in 1958.
 

Herbivores Zone

At the Herbivores Zone, you can see many kinds of herbivores. You can see alpaca, Sika deer, blue sheep, Przewalski’s horese, blesnok, Asiatic wild ass, giraffe, plains zebra, takin, common eland, Asian elephant, hippopotamus, Brazilian tapir, etc.

Primates Zone

At the Primates Zone, you can see western gorilla, snub-nosed monkey, ring-tailed lemur, mandrill, chimpanzee, etc.
 

How to Get to Shanghai Zoo

Take Buses: take No. 57, 91, 519,709, 721, 739, 748, 806, 807, 809, 911, 925, 936, 938, 941, 1207, 196 buses to get to there.
Take metro: take line No.10 and get off at Shanghai Zoo Station, then get out from exit No.1 or 2, you will find the zoo ticket office easily.
Please try to avoid the rush hour, or you will have to take hours on the road.