With daily visitor numbers comparable to Disney, why is this zoo driving visitors so 'crazy'?
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During the recent Qingming Festival long weekend, some people queued up for "Zootopia" in Shanghai, while others queued up for Hongshan Zoo in Nanjing.
Editor-in-chief | Yang Ming
On April 4th, the first day of the holiday, the crowd at Nanjing Hongshan Zoo was so large that the director, Shen Zhijun, had to direct the order on the spot. That evening, the official issued a flow control announcement: the maximum number of visitors is limited to 80,000, the instantaneous number of visitors in the park is limited to 40,000, and self-service sightseeing cars are suspended. This data is comparable to the average daily passenger flow of Shanghai Disneyland.
In 2020, when Hongshan Zoo was closed for 51 days due to the epidemic and its revenue was zero, Shen Zhijun gave a famous speech calling for "revenge" (a retaliatory rebound in the number of visitors). Now, Nanjing Hongshan Zoo has undoubtedly become a top domestic attraction.
Why does a zoo make tourists so crazy? How did this zoo, once known for its "poverty", transform and become a top attraction? With these questions in mind, the author followed the tourist crowds to Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo to find out.
The crowded crowd at Hongshan Zoo on the first day of the holiday, April 4th. Photographed by Zhan Huiwen and Lin Xiao
Hongshan Zoo is located in the north of Nanjing city, near Xuanwu Lake. The ticket price of 40 yuan has not been increased for 14 years.
At 9 am, after entering from the north gate, one is greeted by long queues. There are queues for sightseeing cars, queues for the panda house, and even queues for taking photos with Dudu. One can't help but exclaim: Hongshan is really popular!
Lemur Island is a must-pass place for tourists. Teacher Xu, the keeper, wearing a microphone, provides "entry training" for passing tourists: "In Hongshan, animals are the masters, and everyone is a guest. They have the right to not "receive guests", and we must also remember the agreement not to feed the animals."
Faced with the crowded crowds outside the venue, the animals in Hongshan still eat and sleep as usual, without needing to provide any "emotional value" to humans, because they have the "right not to be seen".
Every animal in Hongshan Zoo has its own name. Photographed by Zhan Huiwen and Lin Xiao
In Hongshan, animals are not kept in cages; they have ample space to explore and can "take a trip on a whim" in rockeries, caves, woods, and pools at any time. The overhead passage in the feline house is the daily "commute" route for the tigers; in the Asian primate house, monkeys can "visit" each other through soft net cages.
In Hongshan, every animal has its own name; they are beautiful, healthy, and confident. Yueyue, a three-legged leopard, loves exploration and is agile; Dudu, a white-faced saki monkey, resembles the faceless man in "Spirited Away", and a casual glance can amuse everyone; although the slender-tailed meerkat "Unnamed" is occasionally bullied, it still yearns for its neighbor's sunbathing...
Dudu, the star animal of Hongshan Zoo, is a white-faced saki monkey. Photographed by Zhan Huiwen and Lin Xiao
Occasionally, one can see hand-drawn signs from the staff in front of the windows: "Please keep a pelican's distance", "I am a red panda, not a raccoon", "Do not take pictures of the tiger glass". The science boards record the animals' personal photos, admission age, personality differences, growth dynamics, and even obituaries.
Guo Pengyang, a 95-after Nanjing citizen, is an annual card holder of Hongshan Zoo and is using a telephoto camera to try to squeeze out a space for a shot in the crowd. He recalled that when he was a child, the animals in Hongshan were not so lively, and there were not so many tourists.
"It's really popular now, and tourists from all over the country come during holidays. Maybe everyone is coming to "revenge" the zoo!"
On the evening of April 5th, Hongshan Zoo once again issued a flow control announcement, and director Shen Zhijun appealed to and thanked Nanjing citizens for giving way to out-of-town friends. The Nanjing Smart Tourism Big Data Operation Monitoring Platform shows that during the three days of the 2024 Qingming Festival long weekend, the number of tourists received by Hongshan Zoo ranked fourth among all scenic spots in the city, second only to Fuzimiao, Zhongshan, and Xuanwu Lake, and the number of tourists received reached a historical high.
Even if you can't come to the scene, it's also interesting to open your phone and "cloud visit the zoo".
During the Qingming Festival long weekend, Hongshan held a total of six live broadcasts, and popular venues such as Lemur Island, Koala House, Red Panda House, and Wolf House were all online. In the live broadcast room, the red panda poked its head out and stuck out its tongue to act cute, the koala occasionally did some free pull-ups after sleeping, and the slender-tailed meerkat happily rolled on the lawn. "So healing!" "I can watch koalas all day." "An hour and a half is too short, I suggest adding time." "Does the zoo need volunteers?"...On the phone side, the barrage kept scrolling.
On the morning of April 4th, I met Xiao Wei, who had just finished broadcasting, on Lemur Island. She was holding a camera and tripod in one hand and a mobile phone in the other, and a live broadcast transmitter was on her back. "Xiao Zi is on a business trip, and I've been broadcasting since the 24th. When he comes back, normally it's
He broadcasts one day, and I broadcast one day." At this time, she had already broadcast nearly 20 live streams and was still full of energy.
Xiao Wei told the author that except for Tuesdays, Hongshan will have two live broadcasts every day, and the animals broadcast will not be repeated within a week. "Bilibili users like to watch areas such as the native species conservation area and the Gondwana area, which have a richer variety of species. Xiaohongshu and Douyin users like to watch "star animals" such as koalas and capybaras."
Xiao Wei, a live broadcast commentator at Hongshan Zoo. Photographed by Zhan Huiwen and Lin Xiao
Today, Hongshan Zoo's livestream has become a source of mental healing for many city dwellers, while it was once a lifeline for the zoo itself.
In 2020, facing losses of over 30 million and having to cut employee bonuses to ensure animal feed, Hongshan Zoo seized the opportunity of livestreaming, launching a "cloud tour" mode, marking its first breakthrough into the public consciousness.
To make this self-rescue effort more sustainable, Hongshan launched "cloud adoption" in 2021. For a time, legally adopting a tiger or a red panda became a social currency for young people; many fans even arranged cloud adoptions for their idols.
The capybara is one of the most popular animals for cloud adoption. Photo by Zhan Huiwen and Lin Xiao
Following this, Hongshan Zoo also tried its hand at cultural and creative products, launching a series of peripherals including refrigerator magnets, plush toys, hats, scarves, and eco-bags. The cute designs and high-end aesthetics rival those of Disney, leading young people to exclaim: "We entered for 40 yuan and left with 400! No one leaves empty-handed." Between 2022 and 2023, it also collaborated with Heytea and Hema for cross-border marketing, continuously expanding the Hongshan Zoo IP.
People are vying to buy plush toys at the Hongshan Forest Market. Photo by Zhan Huiwen and Lin Xiao
Xiao Liang, director of the Modern Business Research Center at Zhejiang Gongshang University, believes that Hongshan Zoo's focus on respecting animals and its commitment to providing excellent products and services has resonated with young people on a humanistic and emotional level, achieving traffic conversion.
“Hongshan Zoo has developed each animal into a mini-IP under the larger Hongshan Zoo IP. With both major selling points and smaller talking points, it can maintain continuous flow and extend to cultural and creative products, forming a matrix-style cultural IP. This concept of providing excellent products and services is worth our consideration and study.”
According to official online ticketing statistics, in 2023, over 60% of visitors to Hongshan Forest Zoo purchased tickets online, with 60.21% of visitors aged 20-30 and 29.57% aged 30-40.
Why Animals Should Have Priority
Of course, a more important reason for Hongshan Zoo's continued success is its respect for animals and its animal-first philosophy, creating a utopian ideal living environment for animals.
Shen Zhijun once said: "A zoo is not a place to spend money to look at animals, but a place to learn how to view animals."
Hongshan Zoo is the first zoo in China to abolish animal performances. Photo by Zhan Huiwen and Lin Xiao
Many people may not know that Hongshan Zoo was the first in China to abolish animal performances, and in 2014, they also stopped animal feeding. Starting in 2017, they dismantled cages and redesigned enclosures, providing animals with hills, lakes, and streams. In addition, Hongshan Zoo rescues about 1,000 injured animals annually, and after rehabilitation, conducts survival ability assessments. Animals that pass the assessment are released back into the wild; those that don't remain at Hongshan for "retirement."
“At Hongshan, you'll find that the paths for people aren't wide, but the animals' living spaces are quite vast. This actually tells us that animals are also an important part of environmental protection and sustainable development. In a more natural environment like Hongshan, animals can also exhibit more natural behaviors.”
Chen Chuanwu, associate professor at the School of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, points out that animals play many roles in our daily lives, and the first thing we must do is respect the rights of each individual life. Correctly treating wildlife is a very important responsibility for us humans.
Obituary for the yellow weasel sister. Photo by Zhan Huiwen and Lin Xiao
After leaving Hongshan, I've been reflecting on why young people today are so enthusiastic about visiting zoos. On the one hand, it's relaxation and healing; on the other, perhaps it's the warmth of life. We often dream of nature and distant places, but overlook the things closely related to our lives. The land beneath our feet was once also a habitat for wild animals.
As urban construction rapidly expands, and inevitable intersections occur between humans and wild animals, how can we coexist peacefully? Nanjing Hongshan Zoo has set a positive example.
Animal science writer Hua Shi wrote in his book "Visiting the Zoo is a Serious Matter": A good zoo will not only bring visitors pleasure and knowledge, but ultimately reflect all the gains and insights in the improvement of daily behavior; this change in behavior will reduce pressure on the environment, allowing both humans and these lovely wild animals to survive longer on Earth.
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