When you think of an Aquarium inside a zoo, you think a smallish building, small to largish tanks, a lot of common fish and a scattering of rarer species. The Beijing Aquarium is not that sort of Aquarium! It is the size and quality of a major stand-alone Aquarium, and it really is impressive. It has a separate entry fee to the zoo itself of course, and that entry fee is three times the zoo entry (120 Yuan versus 40 Yuan) but it is well worth it. Like many attractions in Asia it has a weird ticketing system where instead of purchasing your ticket at the entrance, you have to go to a separate stall not attached to the building at all (in this case, not even particularly close to the building), buy your ticket there and then go to the entrance where some different staff take it off you again. I guess it's to stop clogging of the entranceway but it is pretty annoying (and can be confusing if you don't know where the booth is!).
The first part of the Aquarium is the “Rainforest Adventure”, because all big Aquariums have to have rainforests nowadays. The start area is very dark for some reason; not just low-level light like a rainforest might be but actually dark like a Nocturnal House (in fact it seemed darker than the actual Nocturnal House in the zoo!). The exhibits here are mostly pretty standard for Rainforest attractions – you know the sort, big South American tank, big Asian tank, etc – but there is a very nice red arowana display, a grossly-overcrowded parrot cichlid tank, and an interesting Chinese giant salamander tank.
From the “Rainforest Adventure” you emerge unexpectedly into the zone called “Colourful Beach.” I'm not entirely sure why it's called that but it consists of a very long and very well-done rockpool sort of tank which apparently is 48 metres long!! (That's forty-eight metres long, in case you thought it was a typo). If you imagine a simulated rockwork touch-tank, and stretch it out a looong way, that's what it looks like. Parts of it do appear to be for touching, but it also has deep channels through the middle in which swim large fish and even sea turtles (the pamphlet encourages visitors to “gently slap the back of the large sea turtle”).
At the far end is the third zone, “Bering Town”, decorated with penguins naturally, but which otherwise consists of just one tank. This tank is easily seen as you come into “Colourful Beach” but I was looking at the rockpool area and didn't even realise at first that the tank was for beluga whales! I've never seen belugas before and they blew me away. They are AWESOME!! Seriously! I spent ages just watching them. Unfortunately the tank is tiny. There are two whales in it, and I'd estimate the front is about two-and-a-half times the length of one of the whales, and the tank is a triangular shape. So not much room. I loved seeing these animals but the whole time I was just thinking “they should not be in that tank.” Poor things.
One of the most noticeable things when in the Beijing Aquarium is how roomy it is. Great wide corridors (luckily: this is China after all) and many many stalls selling all sorts of merchandise. The whole area around “Colourful Beach”, “Bering Town” and the next couple of zones is like a mall. Pity they couldn't have compromised more and made the beluga tank at least twice as big.
Zone four (“Acipenser Sinensis Aquarium” – they must have run out of catchy names by the time they built that one) and zone five (“Wonders Of The Coral Reefs”) confused me a little. The entrance to the sturgeon area has a large video screen inside playing a cartoon fish movie so I passed right by, not realising it was an entrance to anything else, and I ended up in the exit to zone five (not labelled as an exit however) from which you can't get to the rest of zone five (because of a downwards escalator). I consulted the map, walked in a circle, consulted the map, and oh hey I found the entrance to zone four! The Chinese sturgeon displayed here are amazing! The kaluga at Vladivistok Aquarium were huge but I only felt sorry for them because they had little room in their tank. The Chinese sturgeons here are also huge but their tank is also huge. There are a lot of sturgeon in there, but they seem to have enough swimming space. The area itself is very well designed with low light in the visitor area, soothing music playing, benches for sitting, a second level for more viewing, and loads of signage (entirely in Chinese, the only down-side for me). Brilliantly done.
It took me a while to find the entrance to zone five because you have to go right back to the start of zone two (“Colourful Beach”) and up a long winding ramp. The marine tanks here are all great. Big, clean, well-stocked – things that often aren't the case in other Aquariums! The number of tanks was extensive but species and themes were as normal for marine tanks, and included (for example) Japanese spider crabs, a lionfish tank, moray tank, nautilus, that sort of thing. The jellyfish area – “Fairyland Of Jellyfish” – was fantastic. There must have been two dozen different species, all displayed very effectively. The exit to zone five was via a downwards escalator as noted earlier, and this bottom area had displays of marine fossils which was nice. Something that just came to mind, I don't think I saw any seahorses or pipefish on display which is unusual. Perhaps I have just forgotten them?
Coming out of the marine area, zone six is “Whale And Dolphin Discovery.” I can't say I cared for this bit. Bottlenose and Pacific white-sided dolphins in little pools – not my cup of tea. (Apparently sea-lions as well, but I didn't see them). Zone seven, “Marine Mammal Pavilion,” is a 3000-seat arena for dolphin shows. This is right next to zone six obviously, but a long way from zone three where the belugas are so I fear the belugas never leave their tiny pool. I didn't watch any of the shows (really, not my thing at all).
There are three public Aquariums in Beijing. I didn't get to visit the other two but this one is supposed to be the best and biggest, and I can certainly imagine that to be true. The dolphin and beluga tanks were a big let-down for me (if I had my way, I'd have got rid of the dolphin area and used the extra space to make the beluga tank several times larger; the whales would have got more room for everyday living, and they could still be used for shows in the arena instead of dolphins). Otherwise it was fantastic. I can't off the top of my head think of anything else majorly wrong. Most of the tanks were pretty spacious, everything was clean, and I saw no sick fish (something which unfortunately is common in public aquariums). Even the public all seemed well-behaved. Very little banging on glass or anything like that.
The first part of the Aquarium is the “Rainforest Adventure”, because all big Aquariums have to have rainforests nowadays. The start area is very dark for some reason; not just low-level light like a rainforest might be but actually dark like a Nocturnal House (in fact it seemed darker than the actual Nocturnal House in the zoo!). The exhibits here are mostly pretty standard for Rainforest attractions – you know the sort, big South American tank, big Asian tank, etc – but there is a very nice red arowana display, a grossly-overcrowded parrot cichlid tank, and an interesting Chinese giant salamander tank.
From the “Rainforest Adventure” you emerge unexpectedly into the zone called “Colourful Beach.” I'm not entirely sure why it's called that but it consists of a very long and very well-done rockpool sort of tank which apparently is 48 metres long!! (That's forty-eight metres long, in case you thought it was a typo). If you imagine a simulated rockwork touch-tank, and stretch it out a looong way, that's what it looks like. Parts of it do appear to be for touching, but it also has deep channels through the middle in which swim large fish and even sea turtles (the pamphlet encourages visitors to “gently slap the back of the large sea turtle”).
At the far end is the third zone, “Bering Town”, decorated with penguins naturally, but which otherwise consists of just one tank. This tank is easily seen as you come into “Colourful Beach” but I was looking at the rockpool area and didn't even realise at first that the tank was for beluga whales! I've never seen belugas before and they blew me away. They are AWESOME!! Seriously! I spent ages just watching them. Unfortunately the tank is tiny. There are two whales in it, and I'd estimate the front is about two-and-a-half times the length of one of the whales, and the tank is a triangular shape. So not much room. I loved seeing these animals but the whole time I was just thinking “they should not be in that tank.” Poor things.
One of the most noticeable things when in the Beijing Aquarium is how roomy it is. Great wide corridors (luckily: this is China after all) and many many stalls selling all sorts of merchandise. The whole area around “Colourful Beach”, “Bering Town” and the next couple of zones is like a mall. Pity they couldn't have compromised more and made the beluga tank at least twice as big.
Zone four (“Acipenser Sinensis Aquarium” – they must have run out of catchy names by the time they built that one) and zone five (“Wonders Of The Coral Reefs”) confused me a little. The entrance to the sturgeon area has a large video screen inside playing a cartoon fish movie so I passed right by, not realising it was an entrance to anything else, and I ended up in the exit to zone five (not labelled as an exit however) from which you can't get to the rest of zone five (because of a downwards escalator). I consulted the map, walked in a circle, consulted the map, and oh hey I found the entrance to zone four! The Chinese sturgeon displayed here are amazing! The kaluga at Vladivistok Aquarium were huge but I only felt sorry for them because they had little room in their tank. The Chinese sturgeons here are also huge but their tank is also huge. There are a lot of sturgeon in there, but they seem to have enough swimming space. The area itself is very well designed with low light in the visitor area, soothing music playing, benches for sitting, a second level for more viewing, and loads of signage (entirely in Chinese, the only down-side for me). Brilliantly done.
It took me a while to find the entrance to zone five because you have to go right back to the start of zone two (“Colourful Beach”) and up a long winding ramp. The marine tanks here are all great. Big, clean, well-stocked – things that often aren't the case in other Aquariums! The number of tanks was extensive but species and themes were as normal for marine tanks, and included (for example) Japanese spider crabs, a lionfish tank, moray tank, nautilus, that sort of thing. The jellyfish area – “Fairyland Of Jellyfish” – was fantastic. There must have been two dozen different species, all displayed very effectively. The exit to zone five was via a downwards escalator as noted earlier, and this bottom area had displays of marine fossils which was nice. Something that just came to mind, I don't think I saw any seahorses or pipefish on display which is unusual. Perhaps I have just forgotten them?
Coming out of the marine area, zone six is “Whale And Dolphin Discovery.” I can't say I cared for this bit. Bottlenose and Pacific white-sided dolphins in little pools – not my cup of tea. (Apparently sea-lions as well, but I didn't see them). Zone seven, “Marine Mammal Pavilion,” is a 3000-seat arena for dolphin shows. This is right next to zone six obviously, but a long way from zone three where the belugas are so I fear the belugas never leave their tiny pool. I didn't watch any of the shows (really, not my thing at all).
There are three public Aquariums in Beijing. I didn't get to visit the other two but this one is supposed to be the best and biggest, and I can certainly imagine that to be true. The dolphin and beluga tanks were a big let-down for me (if I had my way, I'd have got rid of the dolphin area and used the extra space to make the beluga tank several times larger; the whales would have got more room for everyday living, and they could still be used for shows in the arena instead of dolphins). Otherwise it was fantastic. I can't off the top of my head think of anything else majorly wrong. Most of the tanks were pretty spacious, everything was clean, and I saw no sick fish (something which unfortunately is common in public aquariums). Even the public all seemed well-behaved. Very little banging on glass or anything like that.
I guess that I now take beluga whales for granted, having seen them every few months at the Vancouver Aquarium for the past couple of decades, but they are indeed spectacular creatures. I've heard all about the ticketing situation at many Asian zoos and while I think that it is definitely geared towards crowd control it still must be incredibly confusing for a non-Chinese speaking tourist. The tiny pools for the whales and dolphins make me shudder but the rest of the aquariums sounds above average so thanks for yet another review!
