Jack的小留学生日记 l 博物馆 & 动物园

智澳教育是英国克利夫顿学院特许认可的

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在上个月英国解封时，我的母亲告诉我克利夫顿动物园也开放了。她建议我们找个时间去参观顺便支持他们的生意，但我们最后没有去成。更有趣的是，在过去的五年里，我一直住在布里斯托，我家附近有两个动物园，我从未去过。理由很简单——这里的动物园不及我在中国参观过的动物园。英国动物种类较少，动物园面积也较小，总的来说不太吸引我。我四年前去伦敦水族馆的时候就发现了这个问题。虽然它的位置是最中心的，但因为水族馆面积相当小，给人感觉很拥挤，而且水下隧道非常狭窄(勉强能容纳两个人平行站立)，对于当时12岁的我来说，它平平无奇，没有吸引力。和我五岁时参观过的香港海洋公园相比，在当时那是世界最大的水族馆，根本无法相提并论。从那以后，失望的我再也没有去过欧洲的动物园。

为什么这些设施如此陈旧呢？

首先，是因为它的历史。克利夫顿动物园建于1834年，是世界上最古老的省级动物园，它规模小而无趣。在它刚建立的时候，这个动物园被称为一个奇迹，因为人们可以看到他们从未见过的动物，从大英帝国邻国引入的动物。今天，动物园原有的建筑和围墙仍然矗立在那里，根据历史遗产保护法规，动物园无法再建，规模和容量也几乎不会改变。

另一个原因是它的地理位置。克利夫顿动物园位于克利夫顿，是布里斯托尔最中心的地区之一。由于动物园被克里夫顿学院(Clifton College)、已有的道路和其他建筑所包围，所以不可能扩建。

我要提到的最后一个原因是维修成本。在英国所有的历史建筑中，从大英博物馆到自然历史博物馆再到国家美术馆，每年都要花费数百万英镑来维护这些建筑。就在几天前，我浏览了皇家阿尔伯特音乐厅的网站，发现它迫切需要筹集善款以维持音乐厅的运作。令人震惊的是，音乐厅一年的花销需要1500万英镑，而且由于当前新冠疫情原因，音乐厅无法拿出足够的资金。英国的很多博物馆和动物园都是这样的，尽管它们被归类为非营利组织，但它们仍然以商业形式运作，需要付费。所以，下次你去参观大英博物馆或其他动物园时，要知道你是在一个博物馆，也是身处在一个历史遗址中。想想建造这些建筑的工程，以及它是如何经受住时间的考验并屹立至今的。

Jack

英文版

Just last month, when the UK started to open up again, my mother informed me that the Clifton Zoo is open and that at some point, we can pay a visit and support the business. However, we never got to even planing the visit, and funnier yet, for the past five years I've been living in Bristol, two of which of walking distance away from the zoo, I never visited. The explanation is simple, the zoos here is just not as good as the ones I've visited in China; there's less variety of animals, the area of the zoo is smaller, and in general, less appealing. I actually found this out when I went to the London aquarium four years ago; although the location of it is most central, the museum feels cramped, even for the twelve years old me, as the underwater tunnels are very narrow (barely fit two people standing parallel), and also it was pretty undramatic as the aquarium was quite small. This compared to the massive aquarium I've been in Hong Kong at the age of five, which was the largest at the time, was disappointing, to say the least, and since then I have never been to a zoo in Europe.

So why are these facilities so out of date? First, it's history and heritage. The Clifton zoo, which is small and seems uninteresting, was the oldest provincial zoo in the world established in 1834. At the time when it was first established, the zoo was a marvel as people saw animals they have never seen in their lives, imported from the edge of the British Empire. Today the original buildings and walls of the zoo are still standing which under the heritage protection legislation means that little change can be done to increase the size and capacity of the zoo.

  Another reason the size can't increase is its location. The Clifton Zoo is located in Clifton which is one of the most central areas of Bristol. With the zoo surrounded by Clifton College, pre-existing roads and other buildings, it's impossible to expand outward.

The final reason I'm going to mention is the cost of maintenance. Across all historic buildings alike in Britain, from the British Museum to the Natural History Museum to the National Art Gallery, it takes millions of pounds a year to maintain the buildings. Just the other day when I stumbled across the website of Royal Albert Hall, I was amazed to see that it's desperately in need of donation as it cost them a shocking 15 million pounds a year to maintain the hall and due to the COVID pandemic, the Hall can't generate enough funds. This is true for many museums and zoos across the UK, although they are categorised as non-profits, they still operate as businesses and need to cover their expenses.

So the next time you visit the British Museum or zoos in the UK, be aware that you are in a museum as well as a historic heritage site. Think about the engineering of constructing these buildings and how it had stood the test of time and still stands today.

 

Jack

*文章版权归Jack同学所有

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