Bird watching has become an increasingly popular hobby in the eastern coastal province of Fujian and a number of organizations have been set up to promote the activity.

Yang Jin, a clerk with an advertisement company, said he began bird watching three years ago and he is now infatuated with the hobby.

Going to watch birds in the wild at least twice a month, Yang is also an active promoter of the activity in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian.

Bird watching, or observing wild birds' movements and life habits at a distance through a telescope, first originated in Britain and North Europe and has a long history of more than 100 years.

In China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan province, there have been a lot of birdwatchers, but it is only recently that people on the Chinese mainland began taking an interest in the activity.

Fujian province has a long coast line and has a high forest coverage rate, which makes it an ideal place for bird watching.

So far there are over 100 birdwatchers around Fujian. Yang said they had traveled almost all over the province over the past three months on tour. They are planning to publish an illustrated book on bird species in the provincial capital of Fuzhou in three years.

"It is the eternal goal of us 'bird friends' to interest more and more people in bird watching and have a good time while caring for nature and protecting the ecology," Yang said.

(Eastday.com August 5, 2003)