盐城工业职业技术学院   陈传亚

Yancheng Natural Reserves for the Rare Birds

Hello, everyone:

Here we are in Yancheng Natural Reserves for the Rare Birds. It was, approved by Jiangsu Provincial Peoples Government, founded in November of 1983, and in 1992, it was, approved by the state Council, upgraded as National Reserves and established as UNASCO Yancheng Biological Reserves , and listed in World Biological Reserves Network and brought into East Asia Cranes Reserve Network.

AUDIO &VEDIO ROOM Here in the room, we can get the information of the reserves with the help of audio& video tapes, pictures and samples.

There are quite a number of birds in the reserves, with the red-crowned cranes under the major protection. A red-crowned cranes is, precious as a giant panda, so named as it has a piece of red feather like a crown on its top. There exist now only about 2000 wild red-crowned cranes in the world, around 1000 of which fly to the reserves for winter every year.

Yancheng National Reserve for the Rare Birds is the largest coastal reserves, it stretched over the tidal land in Dongtai, Dafeng, Sheyang, Binhai and Xiangshui, covering some 580 km. of the coastal line, with a total space of about 453,000 ha., centering around 17,4000 ha. Of the reclaimed land between Xinyang Port and Doulong Port.

In the tidal land, are living 450 kinds of plants, 379 kinds of birds, 45 kinds of amphibians, 281 kinds of fishes and 47 kinds of mammals, among which are 12 kinds of the wild lives under the Class I protection, like the red-crowned cranes, white cranes, storks, wild ducks, sea-gulls, bustard vulture, etc., and 67 kinds of the wild lives are under the Class II protection. In addition, the tidal land yields over 50,000 tons of reed, 1,000,000 tons of aquatic produces, and about 300 tons of clam worms each year.

The reserve is the resting place for the birds migrating from Northeast Asia to Australia, and it is also an important habitat for waterfowels to live through winter. Every year over3, 000,000 various birds migrate by way of Yancheng. It is one of the places which reserve and provide refuge for quite a few living species on the brink of extinction, and 229 kinds of birds living in the reserves are listed in the Red-covered Book of the Endangering Species by World Natural Reserves Protection Union.

OSTRICH GARDENS 2 ostrich gardens have been built up in the reserves, one is near Wanheting Pagoda, another is by Xinyang Town. Over 200 ostriches, originated from Africa, are raised in the gardens. Any visitor who has an interest to enjoy an ostrich ride may have a try. Actually, it is a courageous sport, requiring both valor and skill, for the rider has nothing but the long neck to hold on in the ride.

DAVID-DEER GARDEN This reserve is a paradise, not only for the red-crowned cranes but also for the David-deer, which are introduced from the abroad. Every Autumn, a large stretches of the salt-wort growing up like pieces of the rosy clouds, with the strong David-deers galloping among the salt-wort against the background of the white expands of the tidal land, that’s really beautiful. And in the reserves also lives a kind of rare animals, called long-teeth deers, or, river-deers, totaled about 1000. It is big as a dog, with 2 long teeth and beautiful color-spotted fur, but with no horns. A river-deer runs so fast that people can seldom catch a sight of it. The natural enemy for the river-deer is the badger, which looks like a small panda. It is a carnivore, good at digging holes.

CRANE GIRL TOMB. 2 km. northeast to Wanheting Pagoda is a pine forest, lush and green, among which lies a large tomb of Crane Grirl, Xu Xiu-juan, who gave up her life for saving the rare birds. Xu was ,born in 1964, of Man nationality. She was awarded as the Model Tourist Worker for training cranes. At 21, she entered Northeast Forestry University , at which she studied so hard that within one year and half she finished all the courses. In 1986, she was employed to domesticate the red-crowned cranes in the reserves, and succeeded in hatching the cranes by artificial incubation the same year. She contributed a lot to solve the difficult problem to make it possible for the red-crowned cranes in the reserves not to migrate every year. On Sep. 16, 1987, Xu, looking for the lost swan for 2 days in the white expanse of the tidal land, gave up her young life in crossing a river. To memorize her heroic deeds, 2 statues of Xu was made in the reserves , one is standing in front of the office building , another is set at the entrance of the reserves. And a TV opera, Crane Soul , is created to reproduce her short life of glamour, its theme song, A True Story, with the beautiful melody, touching people deep in the heart, is resounded on both banks of the Yangtze.

RISING-SUN ON YELLOW SEA It is the best time to see the spectacular of the sun rising from the Yellow Sea in Xin-yang Port on the 8^th and 23d every lunar month, when a high tide appears in the early morning. At dawn, day breaks with a strip of light skimming over the surface of the sea, turning from delicate red to scarlet. Above the tide, a red spot appears with the rosy cloud, which is , in turn, getting larger and brighter, shaping like an egg yolk with a delicate yellow color pervading in, that is the early rising sun. Soon, it rises high above in the sky, shining over the world.

BEACH DISCO To their hearts content, the visitors can aboard a ship sailing on the sea. When the tide ebbs, they can, taking off the shoes, dance disco on the soft beach, it’s a particular pleasure. The so-called beach disco is to tread on the beach to seek shellfish. The beach is so soft and flat, which is spotted with numerous small holes, in each hole lives a shellfish. When man stamps lightly around the hole, the shellfish will emerges from the sand. Actually , there is much fun, making visitors enjoy themselves so much as to forget to go home.

So much for my narration.

Thank for your attention.