Two wolves enjoy the sunshine in the closure.

When 71-year-old Yang Changsheng walks among the wolves, he is greeted like a king: the beasts lower their heads and wag their tails, as if they meet their pack leader.

Yang keeps more than 50 captive wolves in Jimusaer County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He is known as the "wolf king" among the locals.

Yang feeds the wolves. He names every wolf he keeps.

The "king" led about a third of his packs here in 2011, as his former residence in Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang, was too small for the growing population, which expanded from a dozen to some 150.

Yang and a one-month-old wolf cub.

"I'm destined to live with wolves," he says, recalling his decision to keep his first wolf 19 years ago. That day he visited a herdsman friend's home and saw the animal staring at him in the cage.

"At that moment I thought the wolf wanted to go with me," Yang says. He opened the cage, and, to his surprise, the wolf knelt down at his feet.

"The wolf is connected with you. It's yours now," his friend told him. A few days later, his friend brought Yang two more cubs. So the days with wolves began.

A wolf named "White Face."

"People say that wolves are wild, but I believe they also have human nature. If you are nice to them, they become loyal to you," Yang says.

Once Yang was feeding the pack when a new comer named "White Face" was so hungry that it scratched him on his left shoulder. What happened next stunned him: The pack leader leaped at White Face and bit it, and the rest of the pack joined the attack as if they were giving it a lesson.

Yang patrols the valley on his jeep every day.

Under Yang's care, the number of wolves grow steadily and the valley he lives in is dubbed "Wild Wolf Valley." Yang plans to build a wolf park in the valley, covering an area of four hectare for the wolves to roam.

He hopes the park can attract more tourists and help more people understand the wild beauty of the predators.

A wolf statue. "Wolf" is seen everywhere in the valley Yang lives in.

(All photos by Zhao Ge)