Coo, how much?

摘要

Brother New Zot, Dutch-born, dark, yellow-eyed and only nine months old, set off in the morning of October 24th from Oixian, with nearly 4,000 others, in search of his home loft 500km away. He was flying in one part of the Iron Eagle triple crown race, China's biggest racing-pigeon contest. His owner Jacob Poortvliet, a Dutch pigeon-fancier, paid €6,000 ($7,800) to enter 20 birds, though as we went to press he had yet to win one of the 250 prizes and a share in the 3.2m yuan ($500,000) prize pot. Foreign owners are rare, but foreign birds are not. Up to half the birds in the race were Belgian-bred, reflecting both Chinese owners' love of high-flying foreign birds and the stakes on offer.