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This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Four in every 1,000 Chinese children aged 6 to 12 have autism, an incidence that experts say is higher than expected.
The figure has been uncovered in the first national epidemiological investigation into the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder.
Symptoms include differences and disabilities in many areas including social communication skills, motor skills, and sometimes intellectual skills.
The investigation figures did not include children who stay at home or those in special schools, as they have already been diagnosed as having the condition.
Wang Yi, vice-president of the Children's Hospital at Fudan University in Shanghai led the project.
Wang says more than half of the children in the project were diagnosed with autism for the first time.
He says such data obtained at the national level shows that autism is much more serious than previously thought.
China is not the only country with a high incidence of autism. Last year, the United States said one in every 68 children in the country has autism.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Scientists have identified new species of insects and plants in central China's Shennongjia National Nature Reserve.
Seven kinds of flies and three types of dragonflies have been discovered in the nature reserve in the past five years, along with a number of new genus and species of the nettle family.
The discoveries are part of a newly completed research project on the natural resources in the region. The research took five years, and has resulted in a comprehensive report on the area's geography, fauna and flora, as well as microbes and human development.
Researchers say the discoveries have offered further evidence that Shennongjia is one of the most biological rich places on Earth.
The nature reserve is creating a digital database to integrate research on the reserve with 3-D maps. The database will be the first of its kind in China.
Shennongjia is the only well-preserved sub-tropical mid-latitude forest ecosystem in the world.
In 1990, it was recognized by the United Nations as a World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
