By Andrew Galbraith
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A hotel that calls itself the world’s first “polar bear hotel” in the province of Heilongjiang, in northeastern China, has attracted guests and critics for its central feature: live polar bears.
The Polar Bear Hotel, part of the Harbin Polarland theme park in Heilongjiang’s capital and largest city, Harbin, opened its doors on Friday with the promise of seeing polar bears 24 hours a day in all 21 guest rooms.
“Whether you are eating, playing or sleeping, the polar bears will keep you company,” Harbin Polarland’s official WeChat account said in a post dated Thursday.
Photos and videos from Chinese state media showed people watching two polar bears in an enclosure covered with artificial ice and small pools of water.
Yang Liu, a spokesman for Harbin Polarland, told Reuters that the indoor area is only part of the bears’ total enclosure, and that they can stay outdoors when the temperature and air quality allow.
She said interest in staying at the hotel, where rooms range from 1,888 to 2,288 yuan ($ 290.10 to $ 351.56) a night, was “very high”, adding that it is crowded during a trial period .
Conservationists criticized the hotel.
“Polar bears belong to the Arctic, not to zoos or glass boxes in aquariums – and certainly not to hotels,” Jason Baker, senior vice president of the animal rights group PETA, told Reuters on Saturday. “Polar bears are active for up to 18 hours a day in the wild, covering residential areas that can span thousands of kilometers, where they enjoy a real life.”
In 2016, a shopping mall in the southern city of Guangzhou drew global condemnation after videos of a polar bear, Pizza, lying on its side in an enclosure with glass walls.
Harbin Polarland, founded in late 2005, calls itself the world’s first performing arts polar amusement park.
($ 1 = 6,5081 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; additional reporting by Martin Pollard in Beijing. Editing by Gerry Doyle)