A group of secondary school students visited Hainan Island recently and discovered the beauty of nature and the true meaning of conservation.
The five-day Hainan Butterfly Tour, which was organised by Green Power and Shell, was the final activity of this year's Shell Nature Watch - Butterfly Explore programme.
In March, 40 schools each selected a team, comprising one teacher and three students, to take part in a series of educational activities related to butterflies. Then, they had to organise community education events to share what they had learned.
The three best teams - Queen's College Old Boys' Association Secondary School, Buddhist Tai Hung College and St Stephen's Church College - won an eco-tour to Hainan Island.
There are more than 600 species of butterflies in Hainan Island, more than double the number of species in Hong Kong, mainly due to the greener landscape and lower urbanisation.
During the trip, the students visited three national nature reserves including Bawangling, Datian and Jianfengling, all of which are at a different altitude, allowing the students to see a large variety of butterflies.
They also fed Hainan Eld's Deer, a protected species which is considered as endangered as the giant panda, Datian Nature Reserve.