China and Canada

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Owen Bennett Jones introduces personal stories, analysis and wit from correspondents around the world. In this edition, Michael Bristow wonders how well China is protecting Yunnan's environment tourism flourishesa and Lorraine Mallinder joins the fray as Canada debates whether it should change its national animal to match a changing international image. Threatened beauty China, like many Western countries in the nineteenth century, is undergoing a period of vigorous economic growth. It should lift millions from poverty. But the economies of Europe and the USA burgeoned at a time when there was little environmental awareness. That's not the case for China today. Michael Bristow recently went on holiday, to the county of Zhongdian in Yunnan province. And some of the sights he saw left him wondering how long the area's natural beauty will be able to survive the demands of a growing tourist trade. Fur flies as beaver battles polar bear If someone says "Canada", what animal comes to your mind? (Brutal, hulking ice hockey players don’t count.) It may surprise you to learn that the country's official animal, its national mascot if you will, is in fact the beaver - that symbol of hardy, hard-working persistence. But Canada's self-image has been changing in recent years - it's become a harder, pushier, more aggressive place to live. Lorraine Mallinder has been following the debate over whether the national animal should be changed to match...