Saigon Zoo offers entertainment space for children

The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden opened a new entertainment space in early January to attract children as the holiday season of Tet (Lunar New Year) festival is coming.

The 500 square-metre area includes 12 inside and outdoor spaces with different games and toys, and also facilities for playing sports, eating and drinking.

Summer activities, such as painting clubs, games and sports contests, are also offered.

An area called “Reading Space for Children” helps to spread the reading habit among children and teenagers. It has quality lighting, books and staff.

It has many Vietnamese and foreign books, comics, and magazines for children, many of which are new copies and feature topics on the natural world, plants and animals.

“Ho Chi Minh City has few places for children to play. We hope our new entertainment space attracts children and their parents, who often park themselves in the zoo for the whole day on weekends and holidays,” said Huynh Thu Thao, a member of the zoo’s managing board.

A photo contest featuring the zoo and its activities closed on December 29. It celebrated the zoo’s 160th anniversary and was also part of its efforts to attract visitors. The contest received 2,800 photos captured by 300 amateur and professional artists.

The first prize went to Huynh My Thuan for his colour photo called Tam Voi (Elephants in Water), a work featuring two elephants playing with water from a tube managed by a zookeeper.

The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden, located on Nguyen Binh Khiem street in District 1, was established in 1864 and is the country’s largest zoo and botanical garden. It is home to hundreds of species of mammals, reptiles, birds, and rare orchids and ornamental plants. It has more than 1,500 animals.

It includes the Museum of Vietnamese History, which has more than 25,000 artefacts featuring the traditional culture of southern Vietnam.

The facility has worked with international organizations such as the South East Asian Zoos Association (SEAZA) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The zoo attracts more than 20,000 people on weekends.

The Lunar New Year holiday in Vietnam this year will last from February 8-14, 2024.