For Zhang Yifeng's third birthday, his mother gave him a present more surprising than the typical toy cars or baseballs -- she adopted a chimpanzee for him.
Zhang's mother made a donation to the Beijing Zoo in June last year and, in return, the zoo allowed her to adopt the chimpanzee for her son.
Zhang's parents, who named the creature Ding Ding, take him to the zoo almost every weekend to visit his "good friend."
"I love Ding Ding," said the boy.
Zhang is not alone. More private individuals and households have adopted and befriended animals of the Beijing Zoo after the zoo's donation and adoption program was initiated in early 2001.
The program is designed to raise money to take better care of the animals. It also aims at getting more individuals, households and enterprises involved in the efforts to protect wild animals, said Ye Mingxia, an official with the Beijing Zoo's publicity department.
Donations are used to improve animals' living conditions, including disease prevention, facilities upgrading and scientific research, Ye said.
According to the program, any domestic and overseas individual, household or enterprise is allowed to adopt animals after donating a sum of money.
It requires the minimum 500 yuan (US$61.70) donation to adopt an animal. People can name the animals if the donation reaches at least 1,000 yuan (US$123.30), according to Ye.
"Most adopted animals were birthday presents from parents to their children, and there are also some young men who gifted adoptions to their girlfriends," said Zhang Jinguo, vice-director of the Beijing Zoo, adding that a total of 36 families adopted animals last year.
"Public interest in animal donation and adoption has been on the rise."
The donation and adoption program is expected to arouse people's passion for animals and let them develop a closer relationship with animals, said Zhang.
Most of the animals that get adopted are pandas and monkeys, said Zhang.
Beijing's Hepingmen Middle School donated 10,000 yuan (US$1,233) for a golden monkey, and that money has been used to improve the animal's living conditions.
The golden monkey, originally living in the alpine area, is not used to Beijing's droughty weather. As a result, the zoo used the money to buy moistening treatment facilities to improve its living conditions, according to Ye.
Chinese tennis star Zhang Yining donated 100,000 yuan (US$1,235) to name a panda at the zoo last year.
But the zoo's vice-director said more donations and adoptions should go to rare and endangered species, which are particularly in need of improved living conditions and healthcare.
The zoo's 53-year-old American Bald Eagle, which was introduced from Moscow of the former Soviet Union in 1953, has not found its sponsor until recently.
Zhang said more efforts will be given to promote rare and endangered animals this year.
In addition to the donation and adoption scheme, the zoo has set up a network of more than 2,600 volunteers to help the daily running of the zoo, such as guiding visitors.
"Some of them are specially assigned to help sponsors look after adopted animals," Ye said, adding that most of volunteers are students or those working in media organizations.
Sponsors are not allowed to bring animals back to their homes since animals' property rights are still owned by the zoo.
But they can visit their animals any time and get the latest information about them from the zoo.
The Beijing Zoo, which opened by the government of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in 1906 as part of an agriculture research complex, is the first public zoo in China.
Over the past 100 years, it has developed into the largest urban zoo in China, covering an area of about 90 hectares with 4,461 animals and more than 600 million visits per time every year.
Compared with individual public donations, enterprises are showing less interest in the donation and adoption program, according to Zhang.
Statistics from the zoo indicate that more than 130,000 yuan (US$16,029) was donated last year and more than 30,000 yuan (US$3,699) were collected in the first quarter of this year. Donations from private individuals and households accounted for nearly four-fifths of the total. The rest comes from enterprises.
As a result, Zhang called for more domestic enterprises to get involved into the animal donation and adoption program during the zoo's centenary celebration on April 15 this year.
"In western countries, enterprises that donate to zoos enjoy tax breaks, which, on one hand, helps increase financial supports for zoos, and the other hand, improve their images," Zhang said.
"However, in our country, enterprises get no such tax breaks for their donation."
This is why Zhang is calling to establish a tax-break system to attract more non-government funds to support zoos.
(China Daily April 22, 2006)
