After the arrival of a record of 2,000 migratory swans since the winter set in, the beautiful Shengjin Lake natural reserve in eastern China has virtually become a swan lake.

In past winters, however, only around 20 swans flew into this lake in Chizhou city in eastern Anhui province.

Liu Zhengyuan, a leading official with the reserve, said the swarming-in of swans was attributed mainly to the sufficient food and other eatables, the removal of pollutants in the locality, and marked improvement of the local environment. So they left their formal habitat in Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the neighboring Jiangxi province, also in east China.

Adjacent to the Yangtze river, the state reserve is a renowned wetland in Asia favored by migrant birds.

Across an area of some 33,000 square kilometers are currently inhabited by more than 100,000 migratory birds in more than 170 species, of which over 20 are listed under state protection.

Besides, about one-eighth of the white cranes and one-twentieth of the white-hooded cranes in the world have taken this reserve as their habitat.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2002)