XINING, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Xining, a remote high-altitude city in northwest China, has been widening its appeal through an elusive big cat, namely the snow leopard.

One of these animals, residing in Xining, which is the capital city of Qinghai Province, became an internet sensation after a brief but dramatic zoo escape in late September.

Firefighters, drones and a team of 200 rescuers accompanied by search dogs, spent several hours searching for the missing snow leopard across a nearly 100-hectare wildlife park located on a forested hill.

During the third round of searching in the evening, a drone operator who was busy replacing the drone battery, spotted Naonao, which means Naughty, the 16-year-old escaped female snow leopard, in the grass at a distance of merely 300 meters from her enclosure, silently watching the person who had found her.

The runaway snow leopard quickly found herself at the top of trending topics on social media and made more people aware of the fact that Xining is one of the few cities able to catch a glimpse of this flagship species on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China's northwest.

Native to snow-capped mountains in central and southern Asia, snow leopards are at the core of biodiversity conservation efforts on the roof of the world. Scientists have conducted extensive research on the origins of this species and confirmed that it originated on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau approximately five million years ago.

Qinghai is the province with the most concentrated distribution of these rare animals in China. It is currently home to over 1,200 snow leopards. Snow leopard sightings have been increasingly recorded in areas surrounding Xining and reports on animal rescues involving snow leopards have frequently made headlines in recent times.

Xining Wildlife Park, notably, is a zoo-like facility also responsible for rescuing, treating and rehabilitating wild animals from across the province.

In March 2025, a snow leopard cub was found barely alive in the Sanjiangyuan National Park in southern Qinghai, a region where major Chinese rivers like the Yangtze originate.

The cub was rushed to Xining in a 1,000-kilometer journey. Zoo staff and local university experts in the field of veterinary medicine worked around the clock -- and managed to successfully save the badly injured young snow leopard. Under their care, the cub later gained both weight and strength.

This park has treated over 2,400 wild animals -- more than one-third of which have been returned to the wild. According to Qi Xinzhang, the park's deputy director, about 70 percent of the country's successful snow leopard rescue cases took place here.

These 12 rescued snow leopards were all given the surname Ling, which signifies both ice and to cross over in Chinese, in the hope that they would overcome life-threatening challenges, Qi explained. Two of these 12 snow leopards have been released back into the wild.

Such rescue stories have often been shared online -- touching thousands of netizens in the process.

However, the park in Xining had struggled with low visitor numbers for many years. "It was a zoo that could be described as both rich and poor," Qi said. "Rich in species, as it is home to China's only captive Pallas's cats, zoo-bred lynx and snow leopards -- but poor in facilities, as many of the animals there were old and weak."

"Sometimes we could not sell a single ticket all day," Qi recalled.

He began boosting passenger flow through raising the welfare of the animals in this zoo. His team launched an "enrichment" initiative, modifying the breeding environment and captivity methods, while also providing the animals with more options.

Zoo staff built scratching posts for big cats, created puzzle feeders and introduced compatible animals to foster social interaction. Many of these toys and zoo facilities were handmade -- using donated or recycled materials.

Qi's methods worked. The zoo became a joyful place where visitors could capture images of animals engaging in active play -- shattering the conventional stereotype of animals merely walking around in cages.

Social media were also used intelligently to transform rescue and breeding stories into viral posts, while star animals have their own video diaries.

"The wildlife park is a must-see place," one netizen commented. "A zoo that truly cares."

The connection between Xining and the snow leopard now extends far beyond the zoo.

In September 2024, Xining adopted the snow leopard as its urban mascot. This big cat has become the city's symbol -- with 3D snow-leopard sculptures displayed throughout its streets and alleyways, crosswalks painted with paw prints, and cultural products featuring the animal filling local shops.

Also, artists in Xining have incorporated snow leopard images into traditional crafts, while schools are offering ecology lessons related to this big cat.

"Choosing the snow leopard shows Xining's resolve to prioritize ecology and green development," said Gan Zhanfang, a city official.

Gan believes the snow leopard craze will spark an economic spillover. In the first nine months of 2025, Xining received more than 34 million tourists, an increase of 22 percent -- with tourism revenue up 20 percent from the same period last year.

"It will be an innovative way to turn ecological value into cultural and economic value," Gan said.

With Thursday marking International Snow Leopard Day, this Chinese city is under the spotlight -- as it exemplifies how urban conservation efforts can help people and snow leopards share the same horizon. ■