Item from Feb 20, 1994, in China Daily: Sales clerks show off dogs to customers at the Yiya World Pet Market in Beijing.

The market sells fine foreign breeds, and business has been brisk in the Year of the Dog, which began on Feb 10. ...

Once banned as a bourgeois pastime, owning a pet dog in Beijing became legal only in 1993.

In the past 20 years, China has become the third-largest country for dog ownership, with 27.4 million pet dogs, after the United States and Brazil, forbes.com reported, citing data from China's National Bureau of Statistics.

In 2015, the number of registered dogs in Beijing reached 950,000, according to the Beijing Kennel Club. Toy poodles are the most popular breeds, accounting for more than 13 percent of dogs in the city. The Bichon frise, the golden retriever and the Welsh corgi are also liked by the residents of the capital.

The demand for various pet services is also increasing as the number of owners rise. That includes dog walking.

Luxury "pet hotels" in Beijing and Shanghai can be as expensive as hotels for people with some charging about 400 yuan ($60) a day, and they are usually fully booked ahead of major holidays.

Meanwhile, dog relocation services are also booming with more Chinese living abroad.

One company, The International Center for Veterinary Services, says it helps about 2,000 families a year to move their pets overseas.

The service is expensive. For example, it costs between 2,000 and 20,000 yuan to ship a pet from China to the United Kingdom, depending on the size, flight and surcharges.