Living Treasures: An Odyssey Through China's Extraordinary Nature Reserves

As an initial copublishing venture between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China, this title is more than worthy of the event. A Beijing journalist and editor of Nature magazine, Tang chronicles with eloquence, compassion and humor his journeys of discovery through several of China's more than 300 nature reserves established in the last 30 years to protect ecosystems and endangered animal species. The accompanying color photographs give an intimate view of wildlife unique to China, for example, the Crested Ibis ""gem of the East'' and the appealing giant Panda. Siberian Cranes migrate across the China sky and super-elusive Golden Monkeys are caught in situ. Tang's stories are peopled with tigers, elephants, gibbons, alligators, crocodiles and the world's smallest deer, to name a few. He also covers the Dinghu Mountain Nature Reserve``rich but fragile''where some 1700 plant species flourish. (December)