Visitors dumbfounded by balloon penguins at Chinese pop-up 'zoo'
Many people find penguins adorable and they wouldn't miss the chance to see the birds - which mostly live in the Southern Hemisphere - in person.
So, when a banner boasted of a "penguin invasion" at a pop-up zoo in Guangxi, China in November, excited locals bought 15-yuan (S$3) tickets to catch a glimpse of the birds.
But parents and children who stepped into the Guishan Zoo were dumbfounded by the sight of a balloon penguin tied to a pole in an enclosure while its fellow 'penguins' laid in various stages of deflation on the ground.
The other animals on display in the 'zoo' were just as puzzling.
Live poultry such as geese and chickens waddled around in meshed coops, and a lone turtle sat in a glass tank filled with cash donations from visitors who wished for "fortune and longevity".
And it appears that this is not the first time that such a bizarre 'zoo' has popped up in China this year.
In September, a similar-looking banner promoting an encounter with penguins was spotted in Jiangsu.
A video clip filmed by visitors showed half-inflated penguins, and a man could be heard asking one of the flattened 'birds': "Are you alright, buddy?"
Netizens were amused by these pop-up 'zoos', with some saying on Weibo that they could visit these 'animals' for free at the market, while others called them a scam and condemned the operators for deceiving the public.
minlee@sph.com.sg