| 1954:May 25, in order to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the liberation of Shanghai the park is named¡± The Western Suburbs Park¡±, and is opened to the public. 853,300 Yuan is invested in the facilities. A bamboo entrance gate, ice skating rink, children¡¯s garden and a host of other facilities are constructed for the opening of the park. By June 5th: After only being open for ten days the park received between 30,000-150,000 Japanese visitors per day, resulting in traffic jams and damage to flowers, plants and trees. As a result of this the Municipal government agreed to close the park for 15 days for repairs. When the park reopened the number of visitors was limited to 40,000 per day. On June 20th, The General Office of the State Council notified the Shanghai government that the Dai people from Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province were donating an elephant to Shanghai in honor of Chairman Mao Zedong. In August the Municipal government decided to turn the Western Suburbs Park into a zoo. On December 7 specialists in raising elephants were sent to Xishuangbanna in Yunnan to bring the elephant named ¡°South Bridge¡± back to Shanghai. They made the journey on foot and it took more than seven months to bring the elephant safely to Shanghai.
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