The spectators – all Chinese except me, of course – lapped this up and enthusiastically snapped away with their cameras. They paid extra at the end of the show to sit on the elephant or have their photo taken while sitting on the U-shape made by two elephant trunks held together. It occurred to me later that whilst I was a little blasé about the whole experience, having been lucky enough to see families of elephants in the wild on safari, many of the people that day had never had that chance. How many elephants were there in China outside of the zoos? There were only the ones in this corner of the country, most of them only in this park. Many people would never have the opportunities that I had had or travel as far; this was as close as they would ever come to seeing an elephant in the flesh. I am glad they enjoyed it.