Crossing over a patch of pasture land in quick strides,Eric Delvin, from Evergreen State College in Washington, soon began trekking along a narrow trail.

It was raining and the drizzle made the uphill trail slippery, but Delvin was unfaltering in his stride.

Following a series of wooden steps that had been installed just a few days or even hours earlier, he arrived at an open vista no more bigger than two square metres.

"This is the first stop on the interpretative trail that we are building on the hill," said Delvin, who arrived with Rain Jones at the Wanglang Nature Reserve in May as volunteers with the International Community Development Project of the WWF.

"Here we will put out something that will tell people the geological transition from wetlands to slops, from pastures to natural forest," he said.

Their first job was mapping back-country trails that will allow tourists to hike. But then they took on the job of building an interpretive trail - placing bulletin boards at rest places or vistas to provide more educational information for tourists hiking along the trail. "It is a new idea in China," Delvin said.

It is part of the ecotourism programme that the Wanglang Nature Reserve is promoting.

Ecotourism, according to International Union for Nature Conservation, emphasizes "environmentally responsible travel and visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and any accompanying cultural features - both past and present) that promotes conservation."

Delvin and Jones take extra care in directing local workers in their work to build the trail. They made sure that local materials were used and the handrails and other safety installations did not stand out in contrast to nature.

"They got angry when they found the workers cut off a little more grass or carved into a little more of the hills in laying down the trail," said Liu Yihong, a student from Sichuan Normal University.

Jones enjoys her work at Wanglang because, among other things, she discovered at least five different species of wild orchids blooming in the hills in May. "I'd never seen orchids grown in the wild before," she said.

Ecotourism especially stresses education. So while enjoying nature, Delvin and Jones have designed a series of stops and vistas that will allow hikers to learn about nature.

At one vista, Delvin said local staffers had told him they had seen bears walking on the slope in the far distance in the winter. "The learning experience during the hike should be important," Jones said.

An avid birder, Delvin takes his binoculars with him every time he goes up the hill.

As he walks down the hill, he heard birds' singing, and then spotted a family of dark-grey wild blue-eared pheasants. As if sensing danger, one of the pheasants ran in another direction.

"He is perhaps the father who tries to divert our attention to protect his family," said Delvin.

( China Daily September 17, 2002)