Last Chance to See

that they were at least as shy of us as we were of them.
    One or two of them were wearing a type of grey uniform tunic, one was wearing the old Maoist blue tunic, others were more casually dressed. They ranged in age from about mid-twenties to mid-sixties.
    “The committee welcomes you to Tongling,” began the interpreter, “and is honoured by your visit.” He introduced them one by one, each in turn nodding to us with a slightly nervous smile. One was the Conservation Vice-Chief, another the Association Chief-Secretary, another the Vice Chief-Secretary, and so on.
    I sat there feeling that we were stuck in the middle of some gigantic misunderstanding about something, and tried desperately to think of some way of looking intelligent and not letting on that I was merely a science-fiction comedy novelist on holiday.
    Mark, however, seemed perfectly at ease. He explained simply and concisely who we were, leaving out the science-fiction comedy bit, outlined the nature of our project, said why we were interested in the baiji, and asked them an intelligent opening question about the reserve they were building.
    I relaxed. I realised, of course, that talking intelligently about conservation projects to large committees in languages he didn’t know was part of what he did for a living.
    They explained to us that the dolphin reserve was what they called a “semi-nature reserve.” Its purpose was to constrain the animals within a protected area without taking them out of their natural environment.
    A little upstream of Tongling, opposite the town of Datong, there is an elbow-shaped bend in the river. In the crook of the elbow lie two triangular islands, between which runs a channel of water. The channel is about one and a half kilometres long, five metres deep, and between forty and two hundred metres wide, and this channel will be the dolphins’ semi-nature reserve.
    Fences of bamboo and metal are being constructed at either end of the channel, through which water from themain river flows continuously. A huge amount of remodeling and construction work is being done to make this possible. A large artificial hospital and holding pools are being built on one of the islands to hold injured or newly captured dolphins. A fish farm is being built on the other to feed them.
    The scale of the project is enormous.
    It is very, very expensive, the committee said solemnly, and they can’t even be sure that it will work. But they have to try. The baiji, they explained, is very important to them and it is their duty to protect it.
    Mark asked them how on earth they had raised the money to do it. It had all been put into operation in an extraordinarily short time.
    Yes, they said, we have had to work very, very fast.
    They had raised money from many sources. A substantial amount came from the central government, and more again from local government. Then there were many donations from local people and businesses.
    They had also, they said a little hesitantly, gone into the business of public relations, and they would welcome our comments on this. Chinese knew little of such matters, but we, as Westerners, must surely be experts.
    First, they said, they had persuaded the local brewery to use the baiji as their trademark. Had we tried Baiji Beer? It was of a good quality, now much respected in all of China. Then others had followed. The committee had entered into …
    Here there was a bit of a vocabulary problem, which necessitated a little discussion with the interpreter before the right phrase at last emerged.
    They had entered into licensing agreements. Local businesses had put money into the project, in return for which they were licensed to use the baiji symbol, which in turn made good publicity for the baiji dolphin.
    So now there was not only Baiji Beer, there was also theBaiji Hotel, Baiji shoes, Baiji Cola, Baiji computerised weighing scales, Baiji toilet paper, Baiji phosphorus fertiliser, and Baiji Bentonite.
    Bentonite was a new one for me, and I asked them what it was.
    They explained that Bentonite was a mining product used in the production of toothpaste, iron and steel casting, and also as an additive for pig food. Baiji Bentonite was a very successful product. Did we, as experts, think that this public relations was good?
    We said it was absolutely astonishing, and congratulated them.
    They were very gratified to know this, they said, from Western experts in such matters.
    We felt more than a little abashed at these