More than 20,000 pigeons are released at the start of a race in Flanders, Belgium. Chinese racing pigeon fanciers have become big buyers of Pigeon Paradise, a Belgian pigeon traders' association. [Photo / Provided to China Daily]

It's a coo! The Chinese take over a famed Belgian bird tradition

A Belgian bird called Bolt was recently sold for a world record price of 310,000 euros ($425,000), the price of a desirable residence in Brussels.

Named after Jamaica's Olympic gold-medal sprinter Usain Bolt, the racing pigeon was bought by a Chinese businessman at an auction held by the Belgian pigeon traders' association, Pigeon Paradise.

The sale reflects the sport's past and its future. For if Belgium is regarded as the age-old breeding home of racing pigeons, then China is the new center of global demand. It is not only fine wines and luxury cars that the new class of wealthy Chinese are spending their money on.

But, as a source at the association points out, with pigeons there is one huge advantage: "One bottle of wine remains one bottle, but a nice pigeon will have children and grandchildren."

What started as a working-class pastime across Belgium and western Europe a century ago has now become big business. Evidence of this came most recently when Chinese customs officials impounded 1,200 racing pigeons, including the recently retired Bolt, bought by Chinese fanciers at the auction the association organized.

Each pigeon was declared at only 99 euros. Chinese import duties are levied at 10 percent of the value of goods, with further valued-added tax of 13 percent. That means China was due 75,000 euros for the breeding Bolt alone.

Bolt was eventually released but 800 of the birds have been detained by Chinese authorities.

The import duties row highlights China's rapidly growing fascination with racing pigeons, in particular, those bred in Belgium. A couple of years ago, Chinese buyers acquired a 218-bird colony in Belgium for a world record 1.3 million euros. Earlier this year a Chinese industrialist paid 250,000 euros for a racing pigeon called Special Blue.

In the sport, specially bred and trained pigeons are released from a specific location and race back to their home loft. Because it would be too expensive to lose them, the top birds bought in Belgium are usually not raced in China, but their offspring are.

"Belgian racing pigeons have a reputation as being the best in the world," says Martin Martens, the association's editorial and handling expert. "Belgian pigeon fanciers are specialized in several disciplines - speed, short middle-distance, great middle-distance, long-distance and great long-distance. You don't see this in other European countries.

"In the Netherlands, for instance, they build up the distance week by week, then come back to a shorter distance. One week later they again go for a longer distance. Most of them are not specialized in one kind of distance. In Belgium every fancier can race his favorite distance every week.

"That's why you can find real specialists or pigeons that are specialized for a certain distance or race."

This, he says, makes competition standards higher in Belgium.