Taiwan Day 155: Year of the Horse - Feb. 2, 2014 | luomujie blogspot

Taiwan Day 155: Year of the Horse - Feb. 2, 2014

My Chinese New Year celebration was not yet over! Since today was still a holiday most of the tourist destinations, restaurants and malls were still closed but a few were open to offer people some place to relax. Taipei Zoo was one of them. It was only closed in Chinese New Year's Eve but for the rest of the days it was open.

It was my second time here in Taipei Zoo and the first time was in Taiwan Day 63. I only explored the Formosan Animal Area, Amphibian and Reptile House, Penguin House and the brown bear on that day. I'm not a typical tourist so I don't need to make an amazing race type of trip in Taiwan.

I expected that there will be a few people visiting the zoo because of the holidays but I was wrong. Taipei Zoo was packed with people about three or four times my first visit. The number of visitors tremendously increased when the baby panda have his/her debut in the Panda House.

I have planned to see the baby panda but before I bought the entrance tickets a sign was place on the window telling all people that all the tickets to the Panda House were already distributed. I don't have to pay anything to enter the Panda House but based on the rules the tickets were randomly picked at the gate and the tickets have different entry times. Aside from that there was also a limit on the number of people who can enter the Panda House on a single day. Anyway seeing the baby panda was just an option in this weekend travel adventure so it was okay.

It was hot that morning. The temperature was around 24 degrees Celsius. I don't know if winter was really officially over but maybe since I have seen in the news that the cherry blossoms in Taiwan have started to bloom. I will see those sakura soon.

I have visited first the Education Center since there was an exhibit about the Horse Family. I was surprised that there was a separate ticket but it was only 20 NTD. The exhibit was not that exciting but I was able to have a feel on the texture of the skin of zebras. I learned from that exhibit that there were many kinds of zebras. I didn't know that since they all look the same. lol

After that exhibit, I went around the zoo to look for all horses. I have my Taipei Zoo map that I got in Taiwan Day 63 and I already marked with a star the five horses in that map. I took photos of the donkey and the mini-horse. In the Taipei Zoo map there was no mini-horse but a pony but I'm sure that the mini-horses that I saw were the pony. They were located in the Children's Zoo area.

I made a long walk all the way to the African Animal Area with all the hundreds of Taiwanese walking along with their kids. Sunday was really a family day in Taipei! I first saw the Chapman's zebra (Equus quagga chapmani) and I was awed with the view. There were lots of them in their cage. I maybe wrong to describe that it was a cage. Their place was just too big and it looks like they were in their natural habitat.

After I saw the Chapman's zebra I encountered the next horse on my list. It was the Grévy's zebra (Equus grevyi). It was just alone in its area. I checked wikipedia and I found out that this animal was territorial and an endangered specie. I don't know if people who visited the zebras I mentioned noticed the difference.

The last horse that I saw was the Przewalski's Wild Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii). I have made good photos and it was fun watching them.

Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year as I always hear in the news. Whatever name they call it, 2014 is definitely the Year of the Horse.

Yah! tigidig... tigidig...

Sakura Series - Taiwan

Sakura Series - Taiwan


Sakura Series - Japan


Maple Series


Yehliu to Jiufen? Yehliu to Shifen? Cheaper than yellow taxis

The "Taipei kong mahal" (My beloved Taipei)


Other attractions in Taipei


New Taipei


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