Existential battle to survive, both in the water and in the air

The clinic that Liu Jian manages on Chongming island northeast of downtown Shanghai is unlike any you will ever have seen. It is quiet, spacious, and empty - and indeed is desperately keen to have patients.

The clinic, covering 55,900 square meters and built in 2014, is officially named the Shanghai Yangtze River Estuary's Chinese Sturgeon Nature Conservation Area, dedicated to the giant fish believed to have existed for more than 140 million years since the age of dinosaurs.

The fish, known in Chinese as the Zhong Hua Xun or submarine panda, is 2 to 5 meters when it is fully grown, and is native to China. It mostly lives along the Yangtze River but has been on the brink of extinction for 20 years.