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By Xinhua writers Liu Wei Rick Karsdorp AS Roma Jersey , Li Mengxin


CHANGCHUN, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- As a conservationist, 27-year-old Wang Chunli knows what a rewarding yet bumpy ride China must take before reaching its "Beautiful China" destination by the mid-21st century.


For the past two years, she has been wrestling with the paradox between humanity and nature.


In December 2016, Wang went to Xianghai National Nature Reserve in China's northeastern Jilin Province for the first time. She was amazed by the rich landscapes, but shocked by the severe human disturbance in the reserve.


"I didn't expect so many people to be living in a nature reserve. There were even residents among the habitat of red-crowned cranes and heartlands of rare plants," Wang says.


The Xianghai Reserve, built in 1981 Radja Nainggolan AS Roma Jersey , is an important wetland for migratory birds to reproduce and refresh during migration. The reserve sprawls across over 1,000 square kilometers (100,000 hectares) and 12 villages in Tongyu County, Jilin.


There are still more than 15,000 people currently living in the reserve. Before 2015, 30 percent of the core zone, in which human activity is strictly prohibited, was farmland.


Zhang Xuejun Patrik Schick AS Roma Jersey , 56, was born and raised in Xianghai, and witnessed first-hand how human beings occupied the reserve.


"When the wetland was first built, everyone appreciated the pleasing environment. But when they saw that putting sheep out to pasture was lucrative, they all rushed to grab land in the core zone," Zhang says.


At first, the local government sent out patrol teams to control illegal grazing. But it did not work well because grazing was not limited to one location. In recent years, Jilin provincial government decided to solve the puzzle with an immigration project. It removed 248 houses and shacks Maxime Gonalons AS Roma Jersey , returned 6,711 hectares of farmland to grassland and reimbursed the villagers 8,000 yuan for every hectare each year.


However, driven by profit, people still catch rare birds and poison fishes in the core zone.