Wang Tiejun, who is conducting the third national survey to find out the number of giant pandas, together with other Chinese experts, in the Qinling Mountains area, said excitedly that "We saw five pandas in the wild in one week."

"This means that the number of pandas in the area has increased, possibly from the former 60 to around 100 at present," Wang said.

The current survey began at the beginning of December. The Qinling Mountains are known as a division between the north and south China, and a home to the rare creatures.

Wang, a worker at the Foping Nature Reserve on the southern slopes of the Qinling Mountains, has more good news: Chinese scientists have bred 11 giant pandas so far this year, a new record, in Wolong Nature Reserve, southwest China's Sichuan Province, another home to the rare animals species.

"It looks as if the rare creatures, which have existed on the earth for more than 3 million years, will continue to live as good neighbors of humans in the new century," said Wang, who has been working with the pandas for more than a dozen years.

Just prior to the current survey, very few theoretical experts predicted that the giant panda will die out in the 21st century if protection measures are not enhanced.

There are about 1,000 giant pandas in the wild around the world, most of them living in western China. The rare animals are cherished by China as "state treasure".

In the 20th century, human beings have invented computers, set foot on the moon and the global population has hit a record of over 6 billion.

At the same time, human beings have also occupied a large area of the habitat of wild animals, leading to the fact that one-third of mammals, including giant pandas, and one-eighth of plants are on the verge of extinction.

Liang Qihui, Wang Tiejun's colleague, is also confident about the fate of the pandas.

Liang said, the number of giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains area has been stable since China started to build nature reserves in the region at the end of the 1970s.

"This has proved that so long as the human beings work hard to protect them, giant pandas will continue to live on the earth," Liang said.

The Chinese government has launched a 100-billion-yuan (US$12.04 billion) project to protect natural forests. One result is that a forestry administration in the Qinling Mountains area has been successfully turned into a protection zone.

Happy Liang said, "This is a Gospel for pandas, and a great honor of our human beings."

He said, with the improvement of human beings' awareness of protecting the rare animals, and various protection measures put into practice, he is sure that the pandas will not disappear, and will continue to bring good luck and happiness to human beings in the 21st century.

China has established 33 giant pandas protection zones, covering a total area of 17,000 square kilometers. Currently, China has more than 1,100 nature reserves, or 12.4 percent of its total land area.

According a plan of the Chinese government, there will be 1,800 nature reserves in the country by 2010, covering 155 million hectares in area, or 16.14 of China's total land area.

(Xinhua 12/29/2000)