The Sanjiang wetland in Fuyun County in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has been approved as a nature reserve on the national level.

The wetland, covering an area of 53,900 hectares, is home to over 200 species of wild animals including white cranes, red- crested cranes and ernes, which are on the top national protection list.

More than 50 rivers and some lakes are also inside the wetland reserve.

Wetlands, the natural ecological system often referred to as the earth's "kidneys", play an important role in water conservation and the prevention of soil erosion and flooding.

China now has wetlands with acreage amounting to 65.7 million hectares.

The Sanjiang wetland is one of the few reserves in China which have preserved their primitive ecological systems.