TAIYUAN — Sometimes walking leisurely in the lake, sometimes playing together, three flamingos dressed in pink and reddish plumage have attracted dozens of shutterbugs in camouflage coats to a photo shoot at a salt lake in North China's Shanxi province.

After two days, Li Zhongyou was finally satisfied with a photo of two flamingos cuddling up. In order to get the photo, he traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to the lake in suburban Yuncheng, in Shanxi.

Wild flamingos mainly live on large, shallow bodies of water, like pans and saline lakes, in temperate and tropical zones. They are found in Africa, North and South America, and the Mediterranean region, among other areas. However, no fixed habitat for the birds had been seen in China before 2014.

Zhang Weiping, one of the first people to take photos of flamingos in Yuncheng, recalls that in the summer of 2014, he was told that several unrecognizable birds had arrived at the salt lake, and only after arriving at the lake did he recognize them as flamingos.

However, some of them had drooping wings, and some were sluggish and did not look in very good condition.

"There were enough Artemia, or brine shrimp, which is favored by the flamingos, in the lake, and with the local protection efforts, after a few months, the birds gradually recovered," says Zhang, who explains that the improvement could be seen by looking at the color and brightness of feathers when the flamingos spread their wings.

The recovered flamingos left the lake soon after, and it was thought that the "rare visitors" had just stopped by. However, a few months later another flock of flamingos was spotted. Since then, the salt lake has become a stopover site during the birds' annual migration, with the total number reaching eight.

Photos of the flamingos in the salt lake went viral online, attracting enthusiastic photographers from across the country. Meanwhile, these shy creatures no longer just remained in the middle of the lake, but started getting closer to people, sometimes moving to just a few dozen meters away from them.

"As well as flamingos, another 100 species of wild birds can be spotted here, such as black storks and whooper swans, and the salt lake has become one of the must-visit places for bird photographers in the country," Zhang says.

The reasons why the flamingos first landed in Yuncheng are still unknown, but the significant improvement in the ecology of the lake, which was once a chemical production site, is undoubtedly an important one.

The salt lake has seen human activity since ancient times, and its mining history can be traced back to 4,000 years ago. After the 1950s, the development of local chemical enterprises reached a peak, which damaged the surrounding environment.

At one point, there were 15 work sections around the lake that were mining and manufacturing chemicals, with tall chimneys constantly releasing black smoke into the sky.

"At that time, you could smell the smoke when you walked around the lake," recalls Lyu Guoyu, a photographer who worked for a salt lake ecological protection and development center.

During his field research, Lyu met many photographers, and under their influence, he fell in love with bird photography.

"Talking to them gave me a deeper understanding of ecological protection, which helped make our work more target-oriented," Lyu says.

In order to better protect the ecology of this salt lake, industrial production activities around the lake were completely terminated in 2020, and restoration work on mountains, forests and lakes was also carried out.

"Birds are the 'spirits' of the salt lake, and photos can help more people learn about them and fall in love with them, encouraging everyone to protect our environment," Lyu says.