Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 11:30 am
Ancient trees up for adoption
Source: Global Times [14:24 May 10 2011]
By Wei Na
http://beijing.globaltimes.cn/society/2011-05/653485.html
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Source: Global Times [14:24 May 10 2011]
By Wei Na
http://beijing.globaltimes.cn/society/2011-05/653485.html
Of the 2,600 ancient trees listed for adoption by five major Beijing parks, less than 100 have found financial caretakers. While some think high fees are scaring people off, the parks note that they are far less than the tree's actual maintenance costs.
An ancient tree looms over a visitor to Ditan Park, in Dongcheng district, on May 50. Very few of the city's ancient trees awaiting adoption have found financial caretakers. Photo: Guo Yingguang/GT
About 228,000 trees young and old are listed for adoption this year at the Beijing Botanical Garden, the Summer Palace, Beihai Park, Zhongshan Park and Yuyuantan Park.
For an ordinary tree, annual fees are typically 50 to 500 yuan ($7.70 to $77). However, it costs individuals 2,000 to 50,000 yuan to adopt an ancient tree – one that is typically over 100 years old – and that amount doubles or triples if an institute is doing the adopting.
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