[Photo provided to China Daily]

"For decades, the local mahouts have made a living by training elephants to do tricks; many tourists have no idea about the cruelty of teaching an elephant to learn to perform in this way. We try to persuade the mahouts to change their way of operation and attract tourists in a sustainable way that is not abusive to the animals," Zhang says.

"It's not about withdrawing all elephant rides and shows. But we can inform tourists of which elephant attractions are the most friendly to the animals and the local environment."

He says the company indicates on its website where the elephants might be being abused and directs them to the conservation center's activities instead.

He says, this also meets the desires of tourists as they now want more unique experiences.

"Chinese travelers used to join group tours for outbound travel, but now more are traveling independently, and they want to experience something different," Zhang says.