Crashing the party

By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-06 09:34

Occasionally, the crunch of splintering boards or trumpeting of elephants punctuated the trills and chirps of insects and frogs. The noises brought the tropical darkness to life and indicated the animal kingdom's tanks were still patrolling nearby.

The next morning the restaurant was teeming with workers set about architectural triage.

Suddenly, a shrill warbling pierced the air, the launching siren for a salvo of fur rockets that suddenly exploded through the treetops. A simian pinball game began playing out in the canopy, with monkeys ricocheting among the limbs.

After the gibbons had slingshot themselves from sight, we hiked to the cable car that would take us to the reserve's main gate.

We spent the next 35 minutes drifting through the vine-draped canopy. The 2.063-km trip allowed us to take in the reserve's 241,000 hectares as a panorama. Mist swirled through the valleys between the emerald mountains and small yellow birds flitted through breaches in the foliage.

Surrounding the park's gate were several buildings dedicated to the rearing of different kinds of animals. A sign proclaimed that one of these structures, a metal mesh dome about the size of a football field, contained more than 800 birds.

Everywhere we looked were flickers of technicolor wings. More than 3,800 birds are said to have been hatched in the dome and released into the wild.

The building's center sank into a stage where various parrot species performed such feats as loading tin cans into tiny wagons, lifting little barbells in their beaks and assembling simple shape puzzles.

Several audience members waved 5- and 10-yuan bills above their heads. Parrots would swoop over, snap up the cash in their maws and flutter back to the trainer.

Near the bird building was China's first and largest butterfly nursery, where more than 100,000 butterflies from 48 species are raised and released every year.

On an outdoor stage nearby, members of the Jinuo ethnic minority group, China's smallest by population, performed traditional dances.

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