(CNN) — Every day during the racing season, 55-year-old Zhang Yajun wakes at 4 a.m. and carefully loads bamboo cages containing his 76 cherished racing pigeons into a van. Armando is considered the best long-distance racing pigeon "of all time," according to PIPA , the website that organized the sale. The bird, dubbed the Lewis Hamilton of racing pigeons, sparked a bidding war between two Chinese fanciers. Pigeon racing was revived across China in the 1930s. "Although Europe is the birthplace of modern pigeon racing ... China has become the hottest place for pigeon racing, with the most money flowing in.

Source: CNN April 06, 2019 23:51 UTC