KIDS WELCOME - The Sài Gòn Zoo and Botanical Garden offers a new entertainment space for children with quality facilities for sports, eating and drinking. Photo courtesy of Sài Gòn Zoo and Botanical Garden.

HCM CITY— The Sài Gòn Zoo and Botanical Garden opened a new entertainment space to attract children during the holiday season of Tết (Lunar New Year) festival in early January.

The 500 square-metre area incudes 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.

“HCM 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 Huỳnh Thu Thảo, a member of the zoo’s managing board.

CITY HERITAGE - The Sài Gòn Zoo and Botanical Garden was established in 1895 and is the country’s largest zoo and botanical garden. It is home to more than 1,500 animals and hundreds of species of mammals, reptiles, birds, and rare orchids and ornamental plants. Photo courtesy of Sài Gòn Zoo and Botanical Garden.

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 Huỳnh Mỹ Thuận for his colour photo called Tắm Voi (Elephants in Water), a work featuring two elephants playing with water from a tube managed by a zookeeper.

The Sài Gòn Zoo and Botanical Garden, located on Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm 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 Việt Nam.

It has worked with international organisations 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.—VNS