The swan population in the Bayanbulak grasslands, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is rising thanks to local awareness of the need to protect this rare bird.

The number of swans wintering over on the grasslands has continued to rise in recent years, and it exceeded 1,000 last winter, said Abdul Rahmanan, an official with the forestry bureau of the region's Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayinggolin.

However, every year, more than 10,000 swans spend just half the year from April at the lakes of the Bayanbulak grasslands, China's second largest grassland area, before flying over the Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world, to India or even South Africa to pass the winter.

Abdul Rahmanan said local Mongolian villagers treated the swans as distinguished guests because swans in their culture represented "luck" and "happiness".

Meanwhile, even in winter, the grasslands still had plenty of pasture, which provided food, while swans gradually became accustomed to the grasslands' cold weather with temperatures of minus 30 degrees centigrade, he said.

There are seven species of swan in the world, three of which live in China and can be seen in the Bayanbulak grasslands, which cover an area of over 20,000 square kilometers. The Bayanbulak Swan Lake is the first and largest wild swan natural protected zone in China.

(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2003)