Yu Changchun, division chief of the Forestry Department of Jilin province, said: "The introduction of the ban on hunting, the system against poaching and that for compensating damaged wild animals by the government has greatly intensified public awareness of protecting wild animals".

Since last June, the Changbai Mountains Management Committee has dismantled all buildings in the reserve, "It was hard. The costs of land requisition and demolition alone exceeded more than 4 billion yuan," said Xie, "but it pays off. Tourists can find sika deer, black bears, Amur tigers, Amur leopards among other wild animals in the reserve".

In February, Jilin passed a law and decided to resettle more than 800 residents living in the Xianghai National Natural Reserve, making a compromise for rare birds to live and reproduce in the habitat and solving the problem of "men and birds struggling for land" once and for all.

After eco-migration is carried out, more than 3,600 hectares of farmland will return to nature.

Beautiful Xianghai

Red-crowned cranes dance in Xianghai, Jilin.

Xianghai natural reserve in western Jilin province covers an area of more than 100,000 hectares and is home to many birds under state-level protection such as red-crowned cranes and white cranes. As the local environment has improved the population of red-crowned cranes has grown from 70 in 2009 to more than 130 today. Nearly 1,000 white cranes were counted there last spring.

Liu Mingtai is head of China Daily Correspondent Station in Jilin.