People often refer to Sichuan as "the heaven-endowed land" (or "the Land of Abundance") 0 The terrain of Sichuan Province varies in elevation, sloping from west to east and is divided into two sections Western Plateau of Sichuan and the Sichuan Basin. The western plateau is one of the combinative sections of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with an average altitude of more than 4,000 metres. Low hillocks and plains dominate the Sichuan Basin. Rivers in the province mainly include the Yangtze River and its tributaries. The basin in east Sichuan belongs to subtropical and humid monsoon climate and the western part belongs to subtropical and plateau climate.

The province is China's third most populous province, trailing Henan (92.56 million) and Shandong (90.79 million). It is known as the "paradise in China or a land of abundance" or "heavenly-endowed land" because of the rich natural resources and beautiful scenery.

With favoured natural conditions, Sichuan Province has a well-developed agriculture and is China's famous agricultural zone for commercial products. Crops are of a great variety and high output. Economic agricultural produce is famous for the great variety of species, mainly including oilseeds, cotton, peanuts, sesame and sugar cane. Among the fruits, orange yields the highest output. The province owns a relatively complete industrial system, such as iron and steel, coal, electronics, petrochemical, electric power, machinery, construction materials, p'aper, industry, food, and brewery. The province boasts a rich reserve of natural gas and is the most important natural gas industrial base in China. The iron reserve accounts for 13 per cent of China's total reserve and ranks the second biggest in China. Besides, The province has lots of animals and plants. Examples of them are the species of birds and animals account for half of China's total. The province is the home to the national treasure-the Giant Panda.

The province boasts a lot of mountains, rivers and historic relics. UNESCO inscribed Jiuzhaigou, Yellow Dragon scenic area, Mount Emei with the Leshan's Giant Buddha, and Mount Qingcheng-Dujiangyan Irrigation Project on the World Heritage List in 1992,1996 and 2000 respectively.

The province has 42 institutes of higher learning, hundreds of scientific and research institutions and 1.1 million scientific and technological professionals. Sichuan has abundant tourism resources. More than 850 pandas (about 85 per cent of the world's rare giant pandas) inhabit in the province. The province has eight national scenic areas and 40 national nature reserves.

The Yangtze River (6,300 kilometres)-the world's third longest river (The Nile-6, 690kilometres-is the longest, followed by the Amazon6,570 kilometres)-£lows through the province from west to east.

The Xichang Satellite Launch Centre is located there.

Giant Pandas

China has succeeded in artificially breeding more than 100 endangered giant pandas since the first such bred cub was born in 1963 in Beijing Zoo. By 2003, the artificially bred baby panda's chance for survival in Sichuan Province had improved from less than 30 per cent to 90 per cent. In 2002, Chinese scientists succeeded in cloning the giant panda's reproductive hormone gene, which they hope will improve the animal's ability to breed in captivity. In addition to improving the panda's reproductive rate, scientists have put in place aggressive programmes to protect those living in the wild. About 1,000 of the rare species live in Sichuan, northwest China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, where more than 40 reserves have been established. In Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, the area of nature reserves totals 16,200 square kilometres. Meanwhile, the government's efforts on environmental protection have paid off with an increase in pandas' habitats. Nearly 20 corridors have been built to connect isolated reserves by artificial forests and helped pandas living in different areas communicate with each other so as to increase breeding opportunities. Legal moves to protect the giant panda were first made in 1957 and poaching and destruction of their habitats are illegal in China. The giant panda protection centre has created a semi-wild condition for giant pandas in captivity to live and prepare to return to the wild.

To save the precious animals, the Ministry of Forestry started the construction of 17 "biological corridors" connecting existing habitats and reserves, as· part of the Giant Panda and its habitat Conservation Project. More than 1,590 pandas remain scattered in the wild across vast areas of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces in 2004. They were separated in reserves or isolated groups which accommodated anywhere from just a few up to 100 pandas. The biological corridors, which is forest run about 2 kilometres wide between two areas of natural habitat or between a habitat and a reserve, have concealed the pandas from roads and villages and enabled different groups of pandas to meet. According to the overall protection plan for giant pandas, ratified in 1993, the ministry improved the 13 old reserves and set up another 14. The work was completed in 2003.

In a long-term Sino-US co-operation programme, China will use the annual US $ 1 .2 million fund provided by a group of US zoos to construct more panda reserves and the biological corridors. In return, the US San Diego Zoo has been doing conduct reproduction research on two Chinese pandas. Experts said that international co-operation in research on the breeding of endangered species including the giant panda is of great significance. A giant-panda breeding centre in the Wolong Reserve, Sichuan Province, currently has 20 wild pandas taken from different areas inhabited by the giant pandas. These pandas cannot be returned to the wild after being rescued and artificially fed. But they should enable the centre to breed "genetically perfect" pandas. They have been sporadic recent reports of baby pandas being seen in the wild. This suggests that reproduction is taking shape after the catastrophe in the 1980s when arrow bamboo, giant pandas' staple food, blossomed and thus became inedible. More than 1,590 pandas in the wild shows that the animals have made their first step out of the shadow of extinction.

Professor Pan Wenshi has been engaged in scientific research and field inspections into wildlife including giant panda and white-headed leaf monkey, and has won numerous awards and recognition for his work in wildlife protection. He is a recipient of the Paul Getty Prize, the highest prize given by the World Wildlife Fund. Professor Pan and other researchers of his team have put radio collars on giant pandas to help gather information about their habitats, frequency of activities, seasonal migration, mating and food gathering habits. They have also conducted ground investigations and studied behaviour patterns with the help of satellite remote sensing. Pan Wenshi attributed the shrinking population to increased human activities. Professor Pan's theory about the long-term survival of giant pandas is echoed by Zhang Hemin, head of the China Giant Pandas Protection Centre at W olong, Sichuan Province, and Zhang Guiquan, another giant panda researcher with the same centre. Both Zhangs have said the impact of human beings on nature is the main cause of the decline of the giant panda.

One of the most famous mammals in the world, the giant panda is meet and looks like a bear. With the exception of its shoulders, its limbs and the rims of its ears and eyes, which are black, this lovable animal is white all over. Zoological research has proved that the giant panda came into existence 600,000 to 700,000 years ago. Giant pandas live in humid and dense bamboo groves in mountainous areas at altitudes ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 metres. They are afraid of living in extreme weather conditions and make their lairs in tree holes or mountain caves. Chinese pandas now symbolize the friendship between the Chinese people and the peoples of other countries. They have been sent to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Spain, Mexico and other countries.