A 15-year-old dog in in Chongqing’s Yuzhong district has been dubbed the ‘Chinese Hachiko’ for patiently waiting up to 12 hours a day outside a local metro station until his owner returns from work.

Xiongxiong, which translates as ‘Little Bear’, has reportedly been waiting outside the Liziba metro station, in Yuzhong district, every day for the past eight years, ever since his current owner started looking after him. The pooch is well-known by locals who often stop to pet him, but after a recent video of him patiently waiting for his master recently went viral on social media, Xionxiong has become a national celebrity, with people travelling to Chongqing from all over China, just to see him.

Photo: Pear video screengrab

“Xiongxiong is 15 years old and I’ve had him for seven or eight years,” the dog’s owner, who was not named, said in the viral Pear video. “Ever since I have had Xiongxiong, he has waited for me every day.”

“He’s well behaved and never eats anything given to him by others,” a local resident said. “The dog just stays here and waits for him. It always gets extremely excited when it see its owner return each day.”

The dog’s owner leaves to work between 7 and 8 in the morning and returns on the train about 12 hours later, so Xiongxiong just sits outside the subway station waiting for him. He doesn’t mind being petted by passers-by every once in a while, but all he really cares about is seeing his owner again.

Photo: Pear video screengrab

“He just waits,” a resident said. “The moment he sees his owner, he gets so happy and excited.”

Tens of thousands of people have commented on the video of Xiongxiong on China’s popular micro-blogging platform, Weibo. Most of them were moved by his loyalty, but some also declared themselves worried about the elderly dog, and saying that the owner should be more responsible about his well-being.

Now that Xiongxiong is a celebrity in China, some worry that he may become the target of bad people who might try to steal or hurt him.

 

Xiongxiong is only the latest example of extreme canine loyalty. In the past, we’ve also written about Capitan, the faithful dog that has been standing watch by his master’s grave for the last 10 years, or about the impressive canine that waited four months outside the hospital where his owner died, before getting adopted by someone working there. And these are just a few of the many impressive cases we’ve featured in the last 10 years.