Parque de fauna salvaje de Shenzhen

The Shenzhen Safari Park is the city's main zoological attraction, a 4A-level national scenic area set on the shore of Xili Lake in the northern Nanshan district. Established in the early 1990s as one of the first open-range safari parks in southern China, it pioneered the free-roaming model now common across Chinese wildlife parks, in which animals are exhibited in large landscaped enclosures rather than small cages.

The park covers more than 600,000 square metres of hillside and lakeshore, with enclosures designed to allow the animals — particularly the large predators and herd species — to roam in environments closer to their natural habitats than those of older urban Chinese zoos. The layout is organised around a driving safari zone, a walking zone, and a series of performance and feeding arenas.

Wildlife on display includes tigers, lions, elephants, giraffes, giant pandas, golden snub-nosed monkeys, and a broad collection of primates, ungulates, and bird species. The park frames itself as a wildlife conservation, exhibition, breeding, and education facility, and holds the national designation of Popular Science Education Base alongside its 4A tourist rating.

Live animal performances are scheduled throughout the day — an animal theatre, bird-of-prey demonstrations, and elephant and sea-lion shows are the most popular. As with other Chinese safari parks, international visitors used to Western welfare standards should temper expectations; the model here is closer to a traditional zoo-plus-shows than to a Western conservation-focused reserve.

For families travelling with children, the Safari Park is the obvious animal-themed day out within Shenzhen. The Xili Lake location combines easily with a half-day trip to nearby Nanshan's parks. Allow a full day to do the driving and walking circuits and to catch the main performance programme.