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You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
The deaths of 15 milu, the Pere David's deer, at a nature reserve in north China's Hebei Province was caused by bacteria-induced disease.
Local authorities said 15 out of 20 milu deer in the Luanhe Upper River National Nature Reserve have died since last August. Most of them were found to have swollen waists and blood in their mouths. Unable to work out the cause of the deaths, the reserve sent samples of the victims to animal quarantine authorities in Beijing for research.
Experts in Beijing determined that the deer were killed by an epidemic caused by the spread of a certain bacteria. The disease is common to herbivores, and toxins created by the bacteria can cause organ bleeding.
The reserve disinfected the animals' drinking water and vaccinated the five surviving deer. The remaining deer are in good condition.
The milu is a species unique to China. Its summer coat is reddish tan in color and becomes dark gray and wooly in winter.
Overhunting and loss of habitat led to the near extinction of the species in the early 20th century. The deer was reintroduced to China from Britain in the 1980s.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
A brief ceremony has been held at a park in Macao to introduce a pair of giant pandas to the public after a month-long quarantine.
The pandas, aged 7 and 8, were gifts presented by the central government to the special administrative region.
Experts from central China's giant panda breeding base in Sichuan Province said the pair are fit and live in a den that is one of the best outside the Chinese mainland.
Three zoo keepers from the panda breeding base in Sichuan are taking care of the pandas in Macao, paying special attention to the pandas' diet. In Macao, their favorite food, Bamboo, is slightly different from that grown on the mainland.
To ensure the pair will gradually adapt to their new life in Macao, the pandas now depend on bamboo that is transported to Macao each week from Sichuan Province via Guangzhou.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Visitors to the ancient city of Dali in southwest China's Yunnan province will be charged an entrance fee starting Sept 1 in order to cover maintenance costs.
Tourists visiting the site with travel agents will be charged 30 yuan each, roughly 5 US dollars, and the city will collect 1 percent of business income generated by shops and stalls in the city.
Individual travelers are exempt from the entrance fees unless they enter several specific scenic spots.
Dali was the ancient capital of a number of Kingdoms between the 8th and 13th centuries. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in southwest China.
Officials say government investment is far from enough to cover the protection costs of the ancient city. Charging entrance fees will greatly ease the shortage of capital and is an important tool to protect the city.
The 2-square-kilometer ancient city received more than 5 million tourists last year.
The officials said charging the fees might dampen tourism revenue in the short term, but benefit the economic and social development in the long run.
