The crack of gunfire echoed across the Chinese countryside as finance worker Bo Wen pulled the trigger on a double-barrelled shotgun. His prey, a brown pheasant 10 metres away, stood little chance.
Gun ownership is tightly restricted in China, but at the Taizi Mountain Hunting Culture Theme Park in central China’s Hubei province visitors can pay to rent weapons and pursue animals including rabbits and wild pigs — which can be cooked and eaten on site.
Thousands of tourists drove to the park during China’s peak holiday season last month, among the 726m Chinese people who took domestic trips during the “golden week” public holiday, according to official statistics, up 9.4 per cent from last year.