News

China restores major panda reserve

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-08 17:21

LONGNAN, Gansu -- China has restored most parts of a major giant panda reserve three years after it was seriously damaged by a devastating earthquake.

The Baishuijiang Nature Reserve, located in western Gansu Province bordering Sichuan Province, was the worst-hit natural reserve in the 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan earthquake that left 87,000 people dead in May 2008.

Baishuijiang is within 100 kilometers of the hardest-hit counties of Sichuan.

Though reserve facilities were seriously damaged, none of the reserve's about 100 giant pandas were hurt or killed in the quake.

About 90 percent of the restoration project, with a cost of 13 million yuan (2 million U.S. dollars), is completed, said Huang Chenxiang, deputy head of the Baishuijiang Nature Reserve Administration.