Visitors lined up in long queues, streaming into the Xixiakou Shendiao Wildlife Park. The park's gates were tall, painted with designs of birds and beasts. The paint was flaking, but it still managed to exude an air of majesty. Winding paths snaked through the park, lined with iron cages. Tigers and leopards, their fur dull, crouched in corners, barely batting an eyelid at the visitors. A peacock, indeed, spread its feathers, but they were speckled with mud. After a few shakes, they folded them back down. Children applauded, while adults held up their phones, flashing their cameras, concluding they'd seen enough. A black bear bowed, begging for food. Visitors tossed it biscuits. It clumsily caught them and stuffed them into its mouth, its eyes glazed with greed. The keeper stood at a distance, uninvolved, perhaps accustomed to such sights. Turning around the rockery, an old monkey sat alone on a raised platform, apart from the rest of the group. It stared into the distance, its gaze past the iron bars, into the unknown. Visitors streamed past it noisily, but no one stopped to look. When we left the park, we saw the black bear again, still bowing.