BEIJING - If not for a ban on illegal logging, the Giant Panda and Golden Takin in Shaanxi province would have gone the way of the dodo - extinction. But in 1998, the Shaanxi government hit upon a new formula to earn money, called 'sustainable tourism'.

RIVER GETS A LIFE AGAIN: TOURSITS are flocking back for pleasure cruises along the 437-km Lijiang, which used to attract more than a million travellers a year until illegal factories almost killed the river's eco-system in the 1970s. AS part of the Guilin government's environment-friendly measures, throwing litter into the water is banned. Shanxi, Yunnan and Hangzhou are other regions also embracing "sustainable tourism".

It learnt to preserve Shaanxi's abundant natural resources for the pleasure of local and international travellers curious to catch a glimpse of the endangered animals.

Now, no fewer than 600,000 tourists each year visit the province's Qilin Nature Reserve Group in north-west China, earning the local government more than 100 million yuan (S$21.4 million) annually.

The local communities, once dependent on logging as their main source of income, now rely on the tourist trade to make a living.

They set up shops selling trinkets and toy pandas inside the reserve or at its entrance. Others run snack shops and restaurants along the nature trails.

Both nature and people benefit, and this philosophy is spreading fast across China, where local governments realise that the country's renowned natural beauty - lakes, mountains, forests and animals - can be ruined by rapid economic growth and a ballooning population.

Professor Wang Guangbin of the Beijing Institute of Tourism said: 'There was construction everywhere, and as the people got richer, they began to travel more within China. The economy and tourism were growing so fast and so irrationally.'

The new-found love for 'sustainable development' gives the country a respite from rapid industrial reforms that began in 1978, when the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping instituted the country's policy to introduce reforms and open up.

In the rush to adopt industrial reforms, little attention was paid to the natural environment until 1988, when the government formed an environment protection agency.

That was almost 20 years after Western ecologists and anthropologists began to warn of the need to preserve the earth's vital resources amid rapid development.

With the help of international organisations such as the United Nations, China began to warm to the idea of 'going green'.

The environment protection agency is now a full ministry that oversees critical problems such as pollution and environmental damage.

But getting serious about sustainable development does not mean China has abandoned its road to reform and prosperity.

Sustaining nature is done in typical Chinese style: to earn money.

Said Guilin's deputy mayor Pan Jianmin: 'We were losing tourists and something had to be done or we would lag behind other cities in economic development.'

The city's Lijiang, stretching 437 km, was once the top destination for more than a million tourists a year.

That is, until illegal makeshift factories almost killed the river's eco-system.

Set up in the heady days of reform in the 1970s, these factories were producing everything from batteries and toys to motor parts and discharging waste into the river in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

But in a clean-up campaign that began in the mid-1980s, the Guilin government forced the factories to shut down. It also replanted trees where forests had been felled to set up factories.

Twenty years and 300 million yuan later, the Lijiang is clear of industrial waste and teeming with fish. And the tourists are returning for pleasure cruises.

To showcase its new look, Guilin's government played host to 500 participants at last November's Boao Forum for Asia's tourism conference.

Miss Lily Xie, one of the 'chaperones' who helped to host foreign participants at the forum, said: 'The tourist trade creates jobs for people like me.

'I'm proud to show off Guilin to tourists because it has become so beautiful after the clean-up.'