China changes its mind on rare golden monkeys

updated 11:32 a.m. ET June 11, 2009

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Zoo will not get a trio of rare golden monkeys from China as promised, after the city spent more than $7 million to build them a new home and hired a feng shui expert to see that it was suitable.

City Councilman Tom LaBonge said Wednesday withholding the monkeys was the Chinese government's decision.

Then-mayor James Hahn went to China in 2002 seeking pandas for the zoo, but returned with the promise of the blue-faced, blond-haired monkeys as substitutes, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The special exhibit — costing some $7.4 million — was designed to create the sense of a rural Chinese village.

Zoo Commission President Shelby Kaplan Sloan says the zoo will find other monkeys for the space.

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