Protecting our planet for posterity

A group of ecologists invited me and my husband to join them and their families for a barbecue on Saturday in a hilly hamlet called Chapeng, about 80 kilometers from our home near the Bird's Nest in Beijing.

After enjoying a lot of food, we set out to see if we could spot some wildlife in the area. We walked single-file along a narrow, hilly trail lined with shrubs on both sides.

Before long, we heard a loud 'kock-cack' cry. A bird lover immediately recognized the sound as coming from a ring-necked pheasant and said the bird was no more than a dozen meters away from us.