With the help of this ecological preservation area, the amount of egret increases to more than 20,000 from less than 10,000

Before the 19th solar term of Beginning of Winter, the last batch of egrets flied to southern China to spend their winter, which enabled Liu Miaojun- the captain of a patrol team for egret in Shantang village and his team members to spend a relax winter before the egrets fly back next March.

As a paradise for egret, Shantang village was full of the legends about egret from ancient time. According to the legend, Yan Empire who was the earliest ancestor of Chinese nation was used to enjoy the sight of egrets. It was introduced from some villagers of Shantang village that they were taught to protect egrets when they were children.

Though no villagers there hurt the egrets, some poachers were attracted to the village to kill the beautiful birds. It was introduced by Long Xiapi- the Village Secretary villagers would stop the poachers killing behavior when they encountered with them, but egrets still faced dangerous condition. So a patrol team was established in 2003 to handle the protection issue. Furthermore, an egret preservation area was formed in the village to forbid the entering during the inhabit season of the egrets.

It was learned from Liu Miaojun that at the very first stage of the establishment of the patrol team, their key work was for stopping the poachers’ killing issues, but now less and less poachers there and their main work became to save some injured and young egrets.

With all the efforts of the villagers, Shantang village was recovered as the paradise of egrets, and more egrets were attracted there to spend their summer time. According to the data, there were more than 20,000 egrets gathered there, which was much more than earlier days’less than 10,000 ones.

The beauty of egrets attracted more visitors to enjoy their elegance as well. In order to meet the visitors’ demand, more than 2 million yuan was placed by the village to build a special viewing deck facilitated with high power telescope.

Furthermore, with the development of egret preservation area, some other relative projects were improved accordingly, such as the four-star level hotel, farm tourism lines, etc. Along with the development, villagers’ income was increased greatly as well.