Covering 55,900 square meters and built in 2014, Shanghai Yangtze River Estuary Chinese Sturgeon Nature Conservation Area in the northeast of Shanghai's Chongming Island, is dedicated to preserve a giant fish believed to have existed for more than 140 million years since the age of dinosaurs. The fish, known in Chinese as "zhonghuaxun" or Chinese sturgeon, is two to five meters long when it is fully grown. It is native to China and mostly lives along the Yangtze River, but has been on the brink of extinction for 20 years. It is regarded as a "living fossil of fish" or "the Chinese giant panda in water."

The conservation base simulates its surroundings to help the Chinese sturgeons survive in the wild, which includes constructing pools with water quality, waves, salinity and temperatures similar to the mouth of the river, where they will eventually be freed. Currently, the center raises over 500 Chinese sturgeons of various sizes.