Primates prowling in an urban jungle

Lisa Roet, an Australian artist whose inspiration comes from simian research, has added unique work to Beijing's landscape. Deng Zhangyu reports.

A giant golden monkey climbing a green glass building in Beijing's downtown attracts a lot of eyeballs, and bystanders liken this scene to King Kong looking at an urban landscape from the top of a building. For its maker, Lisa Roet, an Australian artist whose inspiration comes from primate research, the giant inflated golden monkey is a symbol of global warming - to remind humanity we're displacing animals, including our relatives that share 99 percent of our DNA, says Roet. The first golden monkey show was staged in February in Melbourne.

Then, a 9-meter-high golden monkey was placed atop the parliament to mark the Chinese Year of Monkey in Melbourne.