Tiger Park in Harbin

While we were in Harbin last weekend we went to a park that was similar to the wild animal park....but in China, things are a bit different. Safety is not of the utmost importance. I was a little apprehensive, but told it is a MUST SEE.

We were in a bus with about 15 or so Chinese and people were paying to have live animals thrown to the tigers. While we were watching a turkey (or some similar type of bird) was chucked out of a car. This car had steel bars all over the windows and the tires so it was protected. The person who was working opened his door real quick and through the bird out. We then saw the tigers going to get it, and the bird flew into a tree. The tigers were just patiently waiting for the bird to give up. Then, the car with the cage around it came back and they guy started throwing fire crackers up to scare the bird. We never did see the bird die, but we saw other tigers eating chickens......very interesting/disgusting.

While we were in the van there was a time where the tiger was staring right at us with his face inches from the window. It startled me because I had been looking out of the other side of the van and when I turned around-boom. Right there. Scary!

At one point, we nearly escaped disaster. The windows have metal on them, but you can still open them a bit to take clear photos. At one point a tiger came over the the window and licked it. This was the part of the window that couldn't open. Then, the tiger turned away and promptly sprayed us. (He was marking his territory.) If this had happened one foot over, it would have completely gotten Emma (our 7 year old friend traveling with us) in the face! Gross!


We got off the bus and walked to an area where we did buy some raw meat, and Damon fed the tigers through the fence. Our friend Mike did the honors of feeding the live chicken. Nicole and Trejan had very different responses. Guess who was who. "Hey, get ready to die chicken! ha ha ha" and "oh no, poor chicken. Mommy I don't like this!"