In the early 1980s, he sold  live turtles in Jordan.

Today, he is a multi-millionaire from owning a thriving herbal-remedy chain, Hoi Tin Tong,
with outlets across Hong Kong as well as Macau.

Ng Yiu-ming is rich mainly because of ``his own-devised medicinal jelly'', and one of the
ingredients is turtle.

Since he founded the chain in 1991, Mr Ng has claimed the formula is a ``cancer cure''.

He appears in magazines and on TV, claiming his formula saved his cancer-ridden mother.

``She was diagnosed as having cancer in 1973 and since then I have given a bowl of my
own-devised jelly made from fresh turtles to my mum, every day. Now, years later, her cancer
has disappeared,'' the 47-year-old claims.

But a June court case between Mr Ng and his brother-in-law, Leung Yee, over the ownership
of Hoi Tin Tong, revealed a different story.

``The turtle gel or jelly does not have medicinal properties, and there was no special formula for
its manufacture,'' Mr Leung told the Court of First Instance. An out-of-court settlement between
the in-laws was reached in mid-June, when Mr Ng agreed to pay $6 million for Mr Leung's shares.

Hong Kong Standard spoke to Mr Ng two weeks ago. He is a small, thin man with a moustache,
and was joined by his wife, Chiu Fung-yee, in a corner at their Tsim Sha Tsui shop. They both
looked rather tense.

When Mr Ng is asked to comment on the court case, he says: ``He (Mr Leung) broke up the
partnership with me a long time ago, but when my business became a success, he was jealous
and spread rumours to hurt me.''

But Mr Ng's own story sounds unbelievable too, others say.

``He has no basis to say turtles can cure cancer,'' says Chinese medicine practitioner Lo Yan-wo.

``One must have a proper clinical experiment on a great number of cancer patients to prove such
a claim.''

Dr Lo, who is president of the Association of Chinese Medicine and Philosophy, says the
medicinal value of turtle is minimal and is only able to remove heat and toxins from the body.

``There are over 100 herb species which have similar effects; you don't need to eat turtles,''
Dr Lo says.

``The herbs used in the jelly are the most important ingredients, not turtles.''

If there are other, more effective alternatives, why do turtle traders like Mr Ng insist on using
the animals in their products? Dr Lo says there is only one reason: profit.

``Herbs are very cheap, but by adding turtle, they can charge much more,'' Dr Lo says.

Each year, Mr Ng makes sales worth an estimated $67 million from his ever-expanding
business.

Mr Ng is not alone, as more people who want to earn a quick buck have joined the turtle trade
in recent years. The turtle-jelly sector has mushroomed. Without hesitation, Mr Ng admits that
he bought turtles from the wild. ``I import them from Guangxi province, where they are captured
from the mountains,'' Mr Ng says. But he adds that he also has a turtle farm. Critics doubt this is true.

``Impossible, if he's got a farm to breed turtles, then he must put a lot of money and resources into it,''
Dr Gary Ades, executive director of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, says.

Every day before dawn, cargoes of stacks upon stacks of wooden crates containing turtles are
shipped into the firm's factory in Sheung Shui.

Each day its staff kill 200 to 300 turtles, or 73,000 to 109,500 a year.

The overall impact on the turtle species is not known, but data from the Agriculture and Fisheries
Department show millions of live reptiles have been imported every year.

The trend is rising at an alarming rate.

The import volume of turtles has jumped from 110,574 kilograms in 1991 to 680,582kg in 1993 and
12 million kg in 1998.

At an average weight of 1.2 kg each, this volume could represent well over 10 million turtles a year.

The World Wildlife Fund started a study a year ago and is expected to release a report later this year.
But the Special Administrative Region, however, is only one part of a big problem: all numbers of
southern and Southeast Asian species of turtles have been rapidly declining in the past decade.
Many face extinction.

``Chinese demand for turtles is a threat to turtles and tortoises in Asia,'' says Michael Lau Wai-neng,
senior conservation officer of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden.

Turtle observer Allen Salzberg of Pro Wildlife says: ``Almost all animals are caught in the wild. With
the low reproduction rate of most species, there is no doubt that this exploitation is not sustainable
and that within a few years many of the affected species will be extinct in the wild.''

International awareness, concern and efforts to assist in Asian turtle conservation have grown
tremendously over the past few years.

Germany plans to submit a document for consideration by the upcoming Convention for the
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) convention to be
held in Kenya in April 2000.

The document, Asian Turtles Are Threatened by Extinction, lists the dangers facing Asian turtles
and recommends a strategy.

Earlier this month, in a trip to survey the biodiversity of forests in Guangxi, ecologists from the
Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden said they failed to spot a single turtle during a six-day period
to two mountains, where they once thrived.

``We have found none; the villagers admit there are few turtles left as they caught them in large
numbers to sell,'' Mr Lau says.

The turtle crisis is not confined in the mainland, but spread like tentacles throughout Southeast Asia.
``In the late 1970s the hard-shelled turtle trade was dominated by Chinese species,'' Mr Lau says.

``Now there are more Southeast Asian species for sale than Chinese ones. The import of turtles
from outside countries has increased more than tenfold since 1977.

``This reflects an increase in demand in Southern China and the depletion of Chinese turtles in the wild.''

Holding the richest diversity of turtles in the world, Asia has over one-fourth of the world's 263 species.
But today the turtles and tortoises species of Asia are facing unprecedented danger.

Also earlier in July, another team of Kadoorie ecologists visited the renowned ``Wildlife Market''
(a street in Nanning, in Guangxi).

``We hardly saw any Chinese species, but many from other Asian countries,'' says  farm conservation
officer Paul Crow.

Turtles are also being captured from the wild in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nepal.

Now even species from New Guinea and the United States are available.

In 1997 Ross Kiester of the US Forest Service and Jim Juvik of the University of  Hawaii travelled
to Vietnam to study turtles and found none.

The focus shifted to the trade network through Vietnam and it was seen that a flow of turtles from the
west, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, then northward into the mainland.

The massive turtle trade to China has been fuelled by tradition and new-found wealth, according to
David Collins, a working member of the World Conservation Union Tortoise and Freshwater
Turtle Specialist Group.

``And the dramatic increase in imports to mainland China dates from the time that Chinese currency
became convertible earlier this decade,'' wrote Mr Collins in his article published in last month's
"The Vivarium."

Attending the recent Animals Committee meeting in Madagascar concerning the Southeast Asia
turtle, China stated that its Management Authority had been aware of the issue.

The China delegate explained that ``it is difficult for China to control trade in the species if the species
is not listed on CITES''.

But listing a turtle species on CITES means tremendous difficulties.

``The turtle trade in Asia is happening so fast and expanding so quickly that they will be made extinct
before science has a chance to catch up,'' Mr Crow explains.

Most of the species listed in the endangered list of Cites are from America, Europe, but rarely from
Asia, according to Mr Lau.

The mainland delegation admits it has difficulty ``identifying the species and this makes control a
problem''.

In 1997, Dr William McCord, a turtle specialist, observed that in two mainland food markets, an
estimated 10,000 turtles were for sale in a two-day period, representing 37 species.

These included five in one market which were listed on Cites Appendix I and are banned from
international trade.

``In China much wildlife is traded illegally, but it still goes on; it is still a heavy trade,'' Mr Crow says.

Copyright(c) 1999 Hong Kong Standard Newspapers Ltd
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