The park will be enlarged from 400,000 square meters to one million square meters and its infrastructure will be improved. In addition, it will be renamed Breeding Base for Siberian Tigers.

As a result of the plan, the park will be possible to raise the number of Siberian Tigers from the current 270 heads to 500 by 2005 and 1,000 by the year 2010.

The total cost of the project is estimated at 30 million yuan (about US$3.61 million ). A feasibility study has been completed.

According to Wang Ligang, the park's general manager, construction of the Siberian tiger breeding base has been included in China's 50-year program for the protection of wildlife and nature reserves, which was initiated in 2000.

Chinese experts say it is no exaggeration that the world's tigers are on the brink of extinction. The number of five major varieties of tigers has dropped from between 100,000 and 200,000 in the middle of the last century to between 6,000 and 7,000 now.

Artificial breeding has proved effective in slowing this downward trend. The Harbin park for tigers, for instance, had only eight Siberian Tigers when it opened in 1986. With its present 270Siberian Tigers, the park has become the world's largest breeding center for artificially bred Siberian Tigers.

The artificial breeding of the tigers, however, needs money. For the park, each new tiger means an additional expenditure of from 30,000 yuan (US$3,6100) to 40,000 yuan (US$4,820) per year. The increase in the number of Siberian Tigers has put a heavy financial burden on the park.

Wang is optimistic the planned financial input by the State Forestry Administration will help the park out of the difficult situation.

(eastday.com October 23, 2002)