A woman shows a box of ejiao at a pharmacy in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province in 2011. [Photo/IC] Xinjiang port handles 8,000 animals in first quarter of year The number of live donkeys being imported to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from Central Asia has soared in the past year to meet demand for ejiao, a traditional Chinese medicine made from boiled donkey hide. Imports in the first quarter through the Irkeshtam Port - the only port in Xinjiang that handles live animals - more than doubled year-on-year to 8,000, according to data from customs authorities in Urumqi. The donkeys are mainly sold in Shandong province, which produces about 90 percent of all ejiao products in China. The live donkey trade was worth 10.03 million yuan ($1.57 million) last year. The gelatinous medicine is mainly used as a treatment for anemia and menopause-related ailments. However, an online post in February by a health service center under the former national health authority advised the public not to purchase ejiao, saying the traditional medicine is not as nutritious as chicken eggs for the human body. It later apologized for creating misunderstanding. Irkeshtam Port began importing live donkeys from Kyrgyzstan in August 2016 and has handled more than 27,000 to date. Since then, the number of companies importing live donkeys has increased from one to six, with more expected to join the trade this year. Companies involved in the live donkey trade need to have a Chinese quarantine permit. The live donkeys arrive at the port in Xinjiang after a two-day journey through Kyrgyzstan. They are then kept in quarantine for 14 days on the Chinese side of the border. The donkeys' blood is tested when they pass through to port to make sure the animals are healthy. Annual production of ejiao, a lucrative product, has totaled 5,000 metric tons in recent years, using 4 million donkey hides. The high demand, coupled with a decline in China's donkey population, has resulted in a marked rise in the number of skins being imported each year. The number of donkeys in China fell from 9.4 million in 1996 to 4.6 million in 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The decline is partly the result of urbanization: Many farmers, who once used donkeys as work animals, migrated to cities. Also, traditional cultivation techniques are gradually being replaced by machines. There are now only enough donkeys to meet half of China's annual demand for ejiao. In response, producers have turned to overseas markets to secure the needed donkey hides. Qin Yufeng, CEO of Dong'e Ejiao, the largest ejiao manufacturer in China, said about 40 percent of the donkey skins it uses are imported. The General Administration of Customs announced in December that it would lower the tariff on imported donkey hides beginning on Jan 1, with the import tariff on entire hides of a certain weight cut from 5 percent to 2 percent. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates there are about 44 million donkeys worldwide, mainly in Asia, North Africa and South America. rubber band bracelet charmsnike silicone wristbandscustom id braceletshow many wristbands in forza horizoncustom silicone wristbands
A Yangtze finless porpoise swims at the Yangtze River Dolphin aquarium in the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, on Nov 10, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua] Canada's minister of environment and climate change, Catherine McKenna, has praised China for its achievements in biodiversity protection and said she expects the country to play a big role in promoting awareness of the biodiversity situation on a global level. In an interview with China Daily, McKenna said she hopes China will set a target for the world in biodiversity conservation when it hosts the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2020. I'm very impressed to see what China is doing when it comes to the protection of biodiversity, she said. McKenna said China is already protecting 18 percent of its land territory and about 90 percent of its ecosystem and critical species. Those are very impressive. And so I absolutely think that China has the ability to show the world that we can act and we need to act. She said President Xi Jinping has called for the building of an ecological civilization in China, which stresses a new relationship between people and nature. That's a new way of thinking about things, she said. It's a very important concept that China can help bring to the world. According to McKenna, biodiversity protection could be an area for cooperation between the two countries, which both have large land masses and incredible iconic species. China has a huge role to play in setting a new deal for biodiversity when it hosts the 2020 conference, she said, adding: We are working with China to make sure that's a success. McKenna said the world needs everyone to understand the importance of biodiversity, not just a small group of experts. When you talk about the animals we care about, that's our past, present and future. We need to take action. She also said having targets for biodiversity protection is important, as that can help measure the work by each country. China and Canada have been working closely on different issues related to climate change, such as carbon pricing, McKenna said. You have the biggest carbon market in the whole world, she said. That's very exciting on electric vehicles and clean technologies. There's an opportunity for Canada and China to show that it's possible to take action on climate change. For that, you can make progress, and it's also good for your economy and creates good jobs. The 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Katowice, Poland, from Sunday through Dec 14. Countries will negotiate setting detailed guidelines to implement the 2015 Paris agreement. Despite challenges in negotiations, McKenna said she is confident of finding solutions. It's going to be a lot of work, she said. There are some issues that are challenging, but I'm very committed to work with Xie Zhenhua (China's special representative on climate change) to solve these challenges. silicone bracelet manufacturerbuild your own wristbandcustom silicone medical alert braceletsgreen rubber braceletfibromyalgia bracelet silicone<%2fcenter>
