Poyang Lake Nature Reserve is nicely described in Peter Matthiessen's
recent book, The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes.

Joel Levin
Seattle, WA


At 10:45 AM 11/25/2002 -0800, Dennis Paulson wrote:

I thought this was worth passing on - a message from a country that one
usually doesn't think of as a birding destination. Sounds fabulous.

From: "zhaojinsheng" <jinshengzhao at sohu.com
Subject: bird watching or research
To: dpaulson at ups.edu
Reply-To: siberiancrane at 163.net
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 21:32:27 +0800
X-Priority: 3 Status:

Dear all

This is zhaojinsheng,I am experience and keen Birdwatchers since I work in
poyang lake nature reserve for fifteen years.I am in charge of tourist and
research,also is manager of The BIRD-WATCHING TRAVEL SERVICE OFFICE of
Jiangxi Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve . Poyang Lake is located at
28??20??-29??50??N,115??50??-116??45??E,in the middle reaches of the
Yangtze River in southern China.Poyang Lake is one of most important
wetlands in world,and It is a largest bird-wintering in asia for
canes,geese,ducks,swan and other waterbirds.with wild wetland,clean
water,fine grass,beautiful flowers and the abundant resources of
fishes,shrimp,snails,clams,and unfrozen water areas,Poyang Lake National
nature reserve is anideal wintering place for white siberian
crane,stork,swan and other species of rare birds.more than 313 species of
birds have been observed in the reserve,there are 122 species wintering
birds in here,among which 54 species are listed by the state as natinoal
?????? degree protected birds.total number of the birds in the reserve
reaches300,000.

More than 95% of white siberian cranes,60% of white-naped crane,80%
oriental white stork ,over 30,000 swan goose,over25,000 tundra swan in the
world spend winter at Poyang Lake.so that it is called ??the kingdom of
birds??and??the second Great Wall of China ??.prince Philip,u.k.Queen??s
husband,prince Henrik, husband of the Queen of Denmark and many famous
experts at home and abroad have come to watch and study siberian
cranes.Poyang Lake Nature Reserve is considered to be a windows for
Jiangxi??s foreign exchange,a base for studying cranes,a classroom for
ecological education and a famous resort for ecological tourism. Located
in a subtropical wet monsoon climate,Poyang Lake covers an area of
5624km2during the summer rainy season,and is the largest freshwater lake in
China.water levels drop as much as 15 meters during the water dry
season(October to March),so that the lake shrinks to an area of 500km2.this
seasonal through early spring period,creating ideal conditions for tens of
thousands of waterbirds migrating south from vast areas of
siberia,mongolia,and northern China.

The period for bird watching:from the middle of october to the beginning of
next match.you??d better stay 4-5 days at Poyang Lake Nature Reserve,we
pledge that you may see the great block of siberian cranes.

We have built a new hotel for bird-watching??s foreign guest,there are
fiveteen double room and one single room,include air conditioning,a
shower(electric machine),a telephone and TV in each room. If you should
come to PoyangLake for bird watching,Please report the details(when?how
many people?how long?which aeroplane?et.) to us,
e-mail:siberiancrane at 163.net TEL:+86-0791-3856873,13979215985 .We may
plane an order rooms to you,also,we are going to see you at airport of
Nangchang city. We can help you when you want to see chinese
merganser(mergus squamatus),Mandarin Duck(Aix galericulata),golded
pheasant(chrysolophus pictus),silver pheasant(lophura nycthemera) at other
place of Jiangxi province. You??re welcome to Reserve!