After waiting five months, 40-year-old Zhu Hongfeng, who was born blind and now lives alone in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was told that he would have to wait another three years to get a guide dog.

In March, he registered for a guide dog at the Dalian China Guide Dog Training Center, which is the only non-profit organization that trains and provides guide dogs to the blind for free.

The news that he would have to wait for another three years came as no surprise.

"I know the center has to consider what's fair, because in many provinces there aren't any guide dogs. Hangzhou has three already," Zhu told the Global Times.

Figures from the China Blind Person's Association show that there are 16.9 million visually impaired people in China, but there are only 47 guide dogs serving them.

Guide dogs were introduced to China just six years ago, and it takes at least two years to train a dog. Currently, there are 500 people waiting for guide dogs, according to Wang Yan, director of the administrative office of the dog training center in Dalian, Liaoning Province.

"The actual demand is far higher than 500. Every day we receive many calls asking if they can apply for a guide dog and we're sorry to tell them that they may have to wait for a long time," Wang added.

Let there be light

Zhu opened a massage parlor by himself when he was in his 30s. Despite the fact that he can't see, he still leads a happy life, though Zhu said that he has always dreamed of what it would be like to experience sight.

"I always hear people saying that Hangzhou is like a paradise on earth, though I may never see it with my eyes, I want to experience the beautiful scenery."

Zhu first learned about guide dogs during the 2008 Paralympic Games, when a guide dog named Lucky appeared at the opening ceremony.

Lucky also came from the training center at Dalian and now serves Ping Yali, the first Chinese to win a Paralympic gold medal. She won the long jump event in 1984 and carried the torch at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.

 "I still remember the announcer saying that Ping was led by Lucky and she ran to pass the torch. I was so excited," Zhu said.

Ping said she was lucky to have successfully applied for the golden retriever Lucky in 2007.

"I used to hire a person to guide me and pay her 1,000 yuan ($157) a month, which was almost a quarter of my monthly income," Ping told the Global Times. "But at that time it felt like I had someone taking care of me, just because I was disabled."

Li Renwei, a piano tuner teacher working at the Beijing School for the Blind, told the Global Times that the most important thing for the disabled is "to prove that we're needed. We have to be useful people. We have to make sure of that, otherwise the world would be a very dark place for us."

With the help of a guide dog named Jenny, 39-year-old Chen Yan, one of Li's best students, has started a new life.

Born blind, Chen was abandoned by her parents and grew up with her grandmother. Three years ago she was in a car accident, which left her in a wheelchair for a year.

"I was desperate. I felt useless and had no hope," Chen told the Global Times. In April last year, she tried living with Jenny, and to her surprise, it seemed like the dog could read her mind.

"I could go to work, go to parks and supermarkets all by myself. Jenny is always by my side, being my eyes, anytime and anywhere I need her," Chen said.

Ping said that having guide dogs, unlike having a person as a guide, helps visually impaired people regain their confidence and self-respect. Unfortunately, not every blind person is as lucky as Chen and Ping.

An expensive process

The Dalian China Guide Dog Training Center was founded in 2006. Over the last five years, it has trained 31 guide dogs. The center is now training 68 dogs and by the end of this year, there will be at least 10 guide dogs available, Wang Yan told the Global times.

"Training a guide dog takes at least two years and costs around 12,000 yuan," Wang Lin, a 25-year-old veterinary science graduate who works on the training team, told the Global Times.

Wang said the guide dog selection process was very strict. Unlike pet dogs, guide dogs, usually Labradors or Golden Retrievers, have to be more compliant and obedient than other dogs.

"If we train 10 dogs at one time, only three or fewer pass the tests and become qualified guide dogs, who can work for about 12 years," Wang added.

Wang Jingyu, the founder of the center, has been paying most of the expenses of the center. He bought hundreds of dogs and learned how to train guide dogs by himself, as the Beijing News reported.

"Honestly speaking, working as a trainer, I only make 1,900 yuan a month," Wang Lin said.

Wang Yan said that most of their income comes from donations and the government provides a 60,000 yuan subsidy for every successfully trained guide dog. "But that's not enough. Adding up all our expenditures, the center spends at least 1.3 million yuan every year."

The founder, Wang Jingyu, declined interview requests from the Global Times.

Hard to master

Around 25,000 guide dogs are serving vision impaired people around the world. About 10,000 are in the US, 4,000 are in the UK, 1,100 are in Germany and 960 are in Japan, according to reports in the Beijing News.

"Because of this scarcity, guide dogs are usually distributed to those who excel in certain areas," Qu Jianye, president of the China Guangdong Lions Club, a charitable organization in Guangzhou, told the Southern Metropolis Daily.

The organization recently presented a guide dog they received from the training center in Dalian to a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

Though it would seem the dogs are distributed largely to elites, there are other factors at play.

"It's about the dog, not the person. We strive to find an appropriate candidate, whose temperament, living conditions and level of blindness are suited to the guide dog available. It's a very complicated process," Wang Lin told the Global Times.

"The chosen applicant also has to be observed for two months to see if they're the right fit for the dog," Wang Lin added.