What's New Venues: Monster Park, Jiaodaokou

Kipp Whittaker | Aug 18, 2015 5:45 pm | Add a comment | 2385 reads

In creeps Monster Park, a new pet store on Jiaodaokou Nandajie, and the place to buy lizards, snakes, spiders, and hedgehogs; so pretty much any animal that is guaranteed to make your friends squirm in terror. While the room Monster Park occupies is practically the size of a shoebox, it’s filled with boutique critters and when we entered they were blasting some Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, adding to the creepy crawly vibe of the shop. Among the stacks of cages and aquariums, they also stock the essentials for feeding and caring for your unusual pet.

The prices are pretty reasonable: a massive tortoise covered in spikes will run you about RMB 800, a baby crocodile (yes a baby crocodile; we’re not sure whether they grow to full size, so that should be a pleasant surprise) is RMB 700, and a Colombian Red Tail Boa is RMB 2,000. You can finally build that supervillain deadly trap floor/execution device you’ve been lusting over and fill it with little critters. It’s nice to know that we’re on the top of the food chain when you are in the presence of such little beasties. If you are looking for something to nurture and develop a sort of codependency with, you won’t get that here. Most of these pets require minimal human contact and would actually quite prefer being left alone to their own ungodly devices.

So unless you’re a witch looking to fill up your cauldron for that special brew, or have a weird niche bar that you want to deck out in black-light sensitive scorpions, then this place likely won’t appeal to you. Nonetheless we love these sorts of macabre displays, even though it’s sometimes at the tragic expense of our furry or scaly friends in forced captivity.

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Email: danielkippwhittaker@thebeijinger.com