Loggers from the Muling Forestry Bureau of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have discovered a yew tree close to 1,200 years old, the oldest in the region's forests.

The diameter of the trunk of the thickly grown yew tree is 92 centimeters.

There are now more than 160,000 yew trees within the working circle of the Muling Forestry Bureau, which is the largest and most well preserved yew tree forest in northeast China.

Experts say, as the yew trees grow at the waterhead of the Muling River, the wet and cold weather and the favorable ecological environment of the area are conducive to the trees' growth.

(CRI October 12, 2004)