Chinese will see two total solar eclipses in the next four years, which may offset their regret of only seeing a partial one on Wednesday, said an expert with the Purple Mountain Observatory on Thursday.

The two total solar eclipses will fall on August 1, 2008 and July 22, 2009, said Wang Sichao with the observatory based in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province.

The eclipse in 2008 will be viewed in northwest China while the one in 2009 in the populous area along the Yangtze River, according to Wang.

The partial solar eclipse on Wednesday was viewed in the Xinjiang, Tibet and Ningxia, as well as in Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan provinces.

However, Brazil, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Libya, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Russia saw the total eclipse, with Libya in North Africa being the best place to watch the astronomical phenomenon.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon is caught between the sun and the earth while each of them moves along their fixed orbits.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)