Matt’s Me-view: Siberia Tiger Park

If you’ve listened to the show for a while now, you’ve probably heard me mention this place. As of this writing, I’ve even recently featured a TripAdvisor review about it, in which the reviewer wished for disappearing cages and poetic justice. While that’s a bit extreme, I do have some things to say, so I’m just going to come out with it and give an honest assessment and review of the Siberia Tiger Park (trust me, I want to add that N on there as much as you want to read it, but look at the picture, no “n”).

I visited various parts of China over the course of 16 days in June of 2014. This was the final class of my college career, even though I had already graduated in May. And while a lot of the coursework was done in advance of the trip – and my partner did well more than her fair share on our project – there was still plenty to learn simply through experience.

Any time I talk about the trip in general, I lay the pros and the cons out, so whoever is listening gets the full context of the trip, just like I did in real-time.

Taking in views from the Great Wall was stunning. Experiencing an utter lack of cheese was troubling. Seeing the Beijing Olympic facilities, where Michael Phelps won gold for everything was amazing. Seeing the conditions in a traditional medicine hospital, where the ceiling tiles looked as water-damaged as my in dorm room was devastating.

Would I go back? Maybe. But of all the places we went, I’d most likely just return to Harbin, the home of the tiger park. And like what I’ve just mentioned, there were positives and negatives to our visit there.

Before we got to the park, I remember another student saying that the website billed it as Jurassic Park, but with tigers. And that honestly wasn’t so far off the mark.

Upon arriving, we were met with a large caged bus, and decorative fiberglass tigers everywhere. Much to our disappointment, we were informed that our bus would have glass windows and be, more or less, a regular tour bus in hockey pads. The bus with full caged sides was a deluxe experience that we weren’t going to get.

But we boarded our humble bus and our worries were put to rest, minute by passing minute.

We moved towards a gate, the gates pulled open. Yes, Jurassic Park-y. So far, so good. Another set of gates opened as the ones behind us drew shut, and then we began to spot them. Tigers – the furry devils – here and there amongst trees and the grass and the shrubs, or walking along the dirt trail that served as our road.

It was pleasant, but as the tops of skyscrapers were still visible in the distance, more was needed to make us feel as if we were in the wild, and more is what we soon got. After moving through a large expanse of grasslands, our bus came to a stop and we were told that the animal we’d paid for would soon be released out of a Jeep.

Our class had apparently paid only for a chicken, one of the cheaper options, but we were informed that larger animals had to be ordered in advance. (Side note: we were told a lot of things, but being Americans who spoke little to no Chinese, it’s anyone’s guess how accurate some of the things we were told were). After a moment on anticipation, a small SUV skidded out from the tree line and onto the path, where around ten tigers took chase.

As it neared, a door swung open and a chicken flapped out to the dusty ground, where it was soon snatched up in a tiger’s jaws. The victor raced into the distance and a few sore losers trailed behind.

Our next stop was near a full-cage bus, as the visitors inside fed strips of beef to lions outside. This felt like a bonus; we might not have paid for the fancy bus, but we were getting the benefit of them paying to feed some lions. I’d call that a win.

So, after passing through another treeline and through another set of gates, we departed the bus for a system of elevated walkways, under which were either small pens and cages, or large open areas. The smaller pens featured more unique cats. Pumas, cheetahs, white tigers, and a liger all prowled, stared, and napped. In the open areas, more tigers ran “free.”

Here and there, vendors sold more strips of meat – chicken and beef – which could be held through the metal chain link fence to feed tigers below, as well as live chickens and ducks. I watched a very anticlimactic chicken death, as the buyer waited to release it until the tigers were right below the chute, so as soon as that little flap door opened, the chicken was chomped.

The duck, on the other hand, put up a fight, but you could say it suffered more for that. Placed in a tiny cage and wheeled out on a pulley system, the duck was powerless, watching as the world below it changed from walkway, to ground, to shallow pool of water with two curious tigers in it.

Fate stepped in, if only for a moment, and just before the bottom of the cage was pulled, the two tigers began playfighting, and the duck fell unnoticed into the water. Four tigers converged and we thought all was lost, but the duck had dived and escaped death again. The third time was the charm, however, and the duck was dragged into the distance in the mouth of a happy tiger.

We were told (there’s that phrase again) that because this park is a tiger sanctuary, they have to keep the tigers alive, but only have enough funding to provide enough food to just do that. That could be true, or that could be how they guilt tourists into buying souvenirs and live animal sacrifices. Who’s to say? Not me, and I was there.

So I think I’ll wrap this up by saying what I always say when I talk about the park. I thought it was amazing and thought “this could never happen in America, or anywhere else.” Because other places don’t have the tigers and other places do have stricter laws, more regulations, and different morals and ethics.

The tigers were beautiful, seeing them romp around chasing after the prey we provided was fun and funny. And I enjoyed myself. I don’t think that makes me a bad person. Just like anything else on that trip, me included, there are good parts and bad parts, and you have to take them all together. But we have brains that can do that. That’s what makes us human. Slightly terrible, but human.

I’ll give it a 3/5. They deliver on what they promise, even if they’re promising something they shouldn’t and what they’re selling is a lie.