Animal welfare activists staged a protest at the weekend outside the Sea World theme park on the touristic Gold Coast in Queensland state, complaining that Chinese facilities for "Ping Ping" were sub-standard.

The bear came to Australia four years ago on a breeding loan from Beijing Zoo.

Sea World on Tuesday released photographs of the enclosure in Beijing which showed a cement-covered area and a small pool, and admitted they were no match for the six million dollar (4.5 million US) facilities on the Gold Coast.

Sea World's marine sciences manager Trevor Long said every effort had been made to keep Ping Ping in Australia.

"Certainly Beijing Zoo is not a Polar Bear Shores," Long said. "However, it is a very large exhibit and it's an exhibit that is about to enter winter where you have five months of ice and snow and I think that is also pretty enriching."

Long said the theme park would help the zoo improve its facilities for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"We always thought that we could manage somehow to keep him but the breeding hasn't been successful," Long said.

"Now he must go home. He's got a breeding job to do at Beijing Zoo."

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