Situated in Xinjiang's Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Bayanbulak Grassland is a great prairie boasting luxuriant verdant grass. The Swan Lake is a blue diamond embedded in the endless green of the Bayanbulak Grassland. Every year, flocks of swans return from the south to live and breed there, thanks to the local awareness of the need to protect this land.

The Bayanbulak Grassland, deep in the East Tianshan Mountains, covers an area of more than 23,000 square kilometers. When summer comes, a variety of wild flowers are in bloom, and herds of sheep leisurely wander over the grasslands, constituting a beautiful picture.

Elder residents there didn't remember when the first swan came to this area. The number of swans inhabiting the grassland has continued to rise in recent years, reaching 30,000 at most, said Liu Wenwen, a local official who's in charge of the region's ecological protection.

"Every April swans will migrant to the Bayanbulak Grassland and multiply and live here. In September these swans will move to the south or the Indian Ocean where the climate is warm."