Ginkgo will be upgraded as China's national tree? Chengdu Daily reported that it was learned yesterday from the Chinese Society of Forestry (CSF) that at the public voting for China's national tree commissioned by the State Forestry Administration (SFA), ginkgo, Chengdu's city tree, defeated other trees with more than 95 percent votes and will become the future Chinese national tree.

On the afternoon of Sept. 24th, reporters called the Beijing-based CSF. According to its staff, the voting activity began in early August. By the afternoon of Sept. 23, CSF has received more than 1.8 million votes through letters and internet from all over China, among which above 1.7 million were for ginkgo. In other words, ginkgo won over 95 percent of the votes, while other trees including metasequoia and Chinese scholartree took up less than 5 percent of the votes. CSF staff attributed ginkgo's victory to its unique representative of China. "Among those candidate trees, ginkgo has the longest history and the most exuberant vitality. It can reflect via a facet Chinese nationality's long history and profound culture, as well as its indomitable and unremitting spirits." To date, the voting has come to an end and CSF has submitted the voting result to SFA and proposed to choose ginkgo to be China's national tree.

Ginkgo is a precious tree in Chengdu region. All ginkgoes in Japan, North Korea and European and American countries are directly or indirectly introduced from China. Ginkgo is the oldest relict plant in the world and is reputed as "world's No. 1 living fossil" and "giant panda of plant."

(Chinanews.cn September 26, 2005)