Under Review: Harbin Polarland

Obviously we don’t own these photos. Don’t hate us, Getty

Oh, Harbin. You silly old city, up to your old tricks once again. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, you’ll find the post on the Harbin Tiger Park of particular interest. The short story is this: it’s a place that has a lot of tigers held in suspect conditions, and it makes them available to the curious visitor for a fee. Said curious visitor can pay additional fees to feed the tigers, both butchered meat and live game.

The tigers themselves are beautiful, but there’s plenty of ugly to balance things out.

And it looks like the city is dipping its toe back in that murky water by opening a hotel in Harbin Polarland, an Artic-themed aquarium that just got a touch more fishy.

Can’t Bear It

However you feel about zoos, we can all agree that the best place for the animal is in its natural habitat. And if an animal is held in captivity - whether it’s your pet dog or a dromedary camel - it should be given space to live comfortably and with respect.

Harbin Polarland has opened a hotel in which every room has a view of a polar bear enclosure, around which the building is constructed. That’s what you’re seeing above. That’s the extent of it. But hey, the hotel is shaped like an igloo!

Now, even though visitors are told that the animals are your “neighbors 24 hours a day,” obviously this small room isn’t where the polar bears spend every literal second of their captive lives. But still, these are large bears that walk mile after mile after mile in the wild. And here they have a runway, perfect for strutting their stuff.

You can see the glass floor on the left in the first image. In both, you can see the windows facing the water. And there is video out there, if you’re willing to dig it up.

Surprisingly, it has proven difficult to find legitimate reviews of the hotel, other than the outrage and bad press that has followed it’s opening last Friday. No TripAdvisor reviews are recent enough. The aquarium’s website is much more geared towards displaying exhibits and animals to be seen. And while there are reviews on Google, they all appear to be weaponized reviews, reviews of protest (similar to those seen against Robinhood and Four Seasons Landscaping recently).

And though they aren’t actual reviews of the hotel, they aren’t totally invalid by default. This is wrong and leaving a one star review is one way to let them know.

I can see why someone thought this was a good idea, just like the tiger park. You have a beautiful wild animal and want to let people see them, for a price of course. And people are delighted to see them. I get that too. Animals are cool.

But not like this. This needed to be thought out a bit more before it moved its way up from concept to construction to completion. They aren’t toys, they aren’t props, and they deserve better than this.

Oh look, here’s a complaint line from the aquarium website (it is China, so good luck making that call): 400-870-0909