[Linhai Zoo: The Animal Conquest 3]The mission was completed, and the reward—a donation box—was placed by Fang Ye at the tiger exhibit!
The donation box looked very ordinary, so Fang Ye decided to spruce it up a bit. He placed a tiger plushie on top and set up a sign next to it with a cartoon tiger on it. It read, "The struggles faced by wild tigers, the efforts our zoo has made to protect them, and our current dire need for funds—your donation can help us build our zoo and improve the lives of our animals," and so on and so forth.
In simpler terms, it was basically saying: "I'm a tiger, give me your money!"
The tiger exhibit itself was already well-constructed, with a beautiful environment and majestic, beautiful tigers. Visitors could directly sense the zoo's efforts. After reading the detailed explanatory boards, they were edified and had a higher level of awareness.
Combined with the magical influence of the donation box, it was as if a voice inside their heads was saying: "Donate, donate, you must donate." The visitors couldn't resist and generously opened their wallets.
After making a donation, they felt a sense of satisfaction in their souls, proud and smiling with more confidence!
After parents donated, they felt it was meaningful to lead by example. Their children were happy to know the animals would have a better life and admired their parents even more!
In just one day, the donation box collected two thousand yuan from hundreds of visitors.
Since electronic payments are prevalent now, some elderly visitors who knew the ticket price didn't bring much cash and felt their meager donation wasn't satisfying. Linhai Zoo didn't have an ATM, and there was no QR code on the donation box for direct electronic payments through scanning, so they called an animal keeper over to try to pay by scanning.
In their words, the zoo was so beautiful and the ticket price so cheap, it was practically charity. They felt embarrassed enjoying themselves without contributing. Donating a little to help the animals live better made them happy!
Fang Ye was very touched when he found out about this and then increased the ticket price from 10 to 30 yuan.
Indeed, the zoo was no longer the shabby place it was at the beginning. Charging ten yuan now would really be like doing charity, and there were still many expenses to come.
Actually, a price of 30 yuan was still very affordable for everyone.
As for not putting a QR code on the donation box, the main concern was that visitors might donate too much in a fit of enthusiasm. It's better to donate within one's means.
However, the next day, an unassuming old man dressed in flip-flops and a sweaty tank top, donated a handsome sum of 10,000 yuan.
When the old man kept stuffing money into the donation box, the Intelligent Monitoring System sensed something was amiss, switched the camera to the security personnel, who in turn quickly notified Bao, the tiger exhibit's animal keeper.
Bao told the old man he didn't need to donate so much as even a small gesture was appreciated, but the old man calmly explained that he owned several buildings and collected rent from them, saying this amount of money was just a drop in the bucket for him.
He also told Bao that he really liked the animals here and would visit often, encouraging the zoo to keep up the good work!
Well, all Fang Ye could say was, "Some people are just beyond great."
But structures like a parking lot and office building didn't need to be fancy; as long as they were functional, it was very convenient to let the system handle the design and construction.
He placed the office building, animal hospital, and other such structures on the edge of the zoo.
These buildings needed another 150,000 green leaf coins, leaving more than 400,000 green leaf coins remaining.
What needed to be considered now was which animals to bring in. Once he'd decided on the animals to introduce, he could then design their exhibits.
With so many green leaf coins, as long as the environment wasn't as complex as the tropical rainforest aviary, it was enough to build six or seven large exhibits, about 3,000 square meters each, or use some of the funds to build smaller exhibits.
The first animal Fang Ye thought of was the giant panda!
Pandas are a national treasure. How could a zoo claim to be the best if it didn't have pandas?
The bamboo forest environment in the zoo was all set up; it would be a shame not to keep pandas.
But while other animals could be bought with money, pandas couldn't be simply bought!
Zoos abroad can only lease pandas, and in addition to the rental fee, they must sign various agreements.
Netizens have joked that the most unequal treaty in the world today is China's panda lease agreement.
The Netherlands sought to lease a panda for 15 years and finally got China's consent to lease two, but could only lease for 15 years. Upon hearing this news, the entire nation of the Netherlands celebrated, spending 7 million euros to build a 9,000 square meter giant panda exhibit, including a 3,000 square meter playground.
When the plane carrying the pandas arrived, dozens of police cars provided an escort, a welcome akin to a president's.
In 2011, Scotland signed trade agreements worth a total of 2.6 billion British pounds with China, including agreements involving salmon, renewable energy technology, and cars, before they could successfully lease pandas.
And since Scotland has been pushing for independence, when they held a referendum in 2014, the British government said Scotland could become independent, but the pandas were leased to the United Kingdom by China, and must be returned to the UK if independence was achieved.
This did not sit well with the Scots who passionately declared, "You can take away our freedom, but you can't take away our pandas," leading to the failure of the independence referendum.
It may have been just a joke, but it goes to show just how much foreigners love pandas.
France took 7 years to negotiate the lease of pandas, promising China the delivery of uranium oxide for nuclear fuel extraction in return. Just like in the other cases, the pandas' arrival was met with great fanfare, with three hundred journalists gathered at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to welcome them.
Giant pandas are just that awesome!