The 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar 
Convention on Wetlands (COP14) kicked off Saturday in China's Wuhan and 
Switzerland's Geneva. Yancheng, in east China's Jiangsu Province, was listed as 
one of the 43 "International Wetland Cities" worldwide. Meanwhile, it is the 
best time to visit the wetlands in Jiangsu, according to the Global 
Communication Center of "Charm of Jiangsu". 

What tells coastal eco-tourism in Jiangsu from ordinary beaches is its wetlands 
and ecological diversity. China's Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of 
the Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf (Phase I) was inscribed on the World Heritage List as 
a natural site in 2019, making it the first of its kind to win the honor. It is 
a resort where visitors can frequently see milu deer, red-crowned cranes, and 
spoon-billed sandpipers in the wild. The local people affectionately call those 
rare animals "three auspicious treasures". 

The vast mudflats provide favorable conditions for milu deer to live and 
thrive. With effective protection over the past 30 years, the population of 
milu deer has risen in leaps and bounds, from 39 in the 1980s to over 7,000 
today. One of them even ran from the seaside to Shanghai this summer.

Autumn is the best season for bird watching. In late October this year, the 
first batch of red-crowned cranes arrived at Yancheng National Reserve for Rare 
Birds to live through the winter, along with migratory birds such as bean 
geese, common cranes, great cormorants and oriental white storks. Known as the 
"Oriental Wetland Capital", Yancheng is a vital node of the East 
Asian-Australasian Flyway, one of the world's nine bird migration corridors. It 
is where millions of migratory birds rest, molt and overwinter every year. In 
Tiaozini Wetland, visitors can see the reddish-brown feathers of spoon-billed 
sandpipers, as rare as giant pandas, gradually being replaced by the grey-white 
feathers which help them to stay warm and dry in winter. 

Jiangsu is renowned for its water resources and cultural deposits. Apart from 
coastal wetlands, inland wetlands can offer equally novel experiences to 
visitors. In autumn, when the dawn-redwood forest in Sihong Hongze Lake Wetland 
Scenic Spot, Suqian City presents the best landscape, visitors can enjoy the 
scenery of the red trees and turquoise lake reflecting each other. In Qinhu 
National Wetland Park, Jiangyan District, Taizhou City, a kind of well-known 
edible crab is entering the ripening stage. In Suzhou Taihu Lake National 
Wetland Park, people can also feel the charm of "shuixiang", or the land of 
water, in the southern Yangtze River region. 

Coastal ecological wetland tourism plays an important role in Jiangsu tourism. 
Jiangsu issued a plan for building a world-class coastal eco-tourism corridor 
earlier this year, stating that it will improve coastal tourism products and 
services in three years. For the tourists who fancy the sea, it is a golden 
period and don't miss the distinctive wetlands.

Source: Global Communication Center of "Charm of Jiangsu"