A bear farm's transition into a sanctuary has fueled hope among animal activists over a long-running national campaign to end the extraction of bile from the animals.

A farm with 130 bears in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, is being transformed into a bear rescue center, said Yan Shaohong, general manager of the Flower World group, which runs the farm as part of a State-invested horticultural business, in Beijing on Tuesday.

At the farm's request, Animals Asia, a welfare organization, will first take 28 ill bears from Flower World to Chengdu for urgent treatment.