Having been expecting the stereotypical western view of Chinese keeping of animals (bad conditions and small enclosures). Yes I still hold some stereotypes. I was pleasantly surprised to find the zoo spacious, with large enclosures, reasonably well staffed, and from what I could see good conditions. You could choose to go around on foot, or pay an extra 40 kuai for an electric buggy tour. We of course being Scottish and Chinese respectfully didn't want to part with more money and elected to do the healthy thing of walking around. They had a bit for baby animals, an indoor glass house for exotic plants, and sections for different types of animals: including "Dangerous animals" and "non dangerous animals". Haha. You could purchase animal feed in the different sections for 1-3 kuai for a unit, and of course there were plenty of signs saying, "don't feed the animals your own food", and "don't annoy the animals." They had a good variety of animals, and to be honest I can't remember the last time I went to a proper zoo in the UK so I can't really compare blow for blow. I felt the selection of animals was good including llamas obviously, lions, hyenas, camels, bears, leopards, horses (that you could pet), squirrels, swans, ducks, birds, ostriches and others. Having gotten close to this llama, I hadn't realised before that the wool felt much like soft sheep wool, and could be quite comfortable.

The enclosures with the caniverous animals, had staff selling raw chicken, and whole (live) chickens in cages, in order to throw in. In the lion enclosure there were lots and lots of chicken feathers lying around. I thought this was quite novel, and was tempted to get a live chicken myself to throw in, but at 50 kuai a pop, I have to say I would rather go home and eat chicken myself.

Transport was arranged going to the zoo from the same company that we bought the tickets from (120 kuai for an adult, 60 kuai for students) near the train station, and we had to arrange our own transport home. This translated to one of 5 buses directly outside the zoo.

On the whole the experience was good, though tiring. We should have gotten their earlier as there was a section that we didn't get to see that was up the mountain on a cable car (trip included free with the zoo ticket). So 1pm -5PM is probably enough if you're not too fussed about doing lots of petting/taking photographs, but for us it wasn't long enough as the atmosphere died around 4pm with the in park shops and staff stopping around 4:15pm. The only bad point is that parts of it are in development, so is a bit of a building site, but onl a small area.