By MARY KWANG
                      CHINA CORRESPONDENT

                 BEIJING -- Infant food manufacturers in China are
                 gearing up for a leap in sales this year, citing the
                 auspicious Dragon Year as a factor pushing more
                 couples to have babies, particularly in southern China.

                 The fact that it is a Golden Dragon Year is expected to
                 increase demand. The golden dragon appears once in
                 every five Chinese zodiac cycles. Since a cycle lasts 12
                 years, the last golden dragon year was in 1940.

                 Mr Mike Phua, managing director of Dumex Shanghai,
                 among the biggest baby food distributors in the country,
                 said: "This pattern appears slightly more pronounced in
                 the south than in the north because the southern Chinese
                 seem more traditional than their northern cousins."

                 Mr Lim Tau Han, vice-president of Wyeth Ayerst China
                 in Shanghai, which markets infant formula milk, expects
                 sales to grow significantly this year because of marketing
                 efforts and the launch of new products.

                 And the Dragon Year will be an extra plus factor. "But
                 in China, it's to a smaller extent, because with the
                 one-child policy, people tend not to wait for the
                 Dragon."

                 Media reports said that at Shandong Medical Hospital's
                 maternity wing, doctors had been seeing more than 150
                 pregnant women a day in the last six months, double the
                 number of the corresponding period in 1998.

                 Some Shanghai hospitals also reported their maternity
                 clinics had been busier than usual in recent months.

                 But at the Beijing Maternity Hospital, things appear to
                 be different. A spokesman said the hospital was not
                 making special arrangements for this year as it expected
                 birth figures to remain stable.

                 "We have not seen an increase in the number of
                 pregnant women in our clinics. Beijing residents don't
                 place much store by the fact that it will be Dragon
                 Year."

                 Among those who fall in the indifferent group is Beijing's
                 Chen Aibing, 26, who tied the knot last year and has
                 been receiving knowing looks from relatives.

                 Family elders want to know if the young couple are
                 planning a baby this year, considered doubly significant
                 because it is the Millennium and Dragon Year, and a
                 golden dragon at that.

                 Ms Chen said: "We're not planning a baby this year. We
                 will not deliberately set out to have a baby just because
                 it's the Dragon Year!"

                 Sharing her views is publishing company director Chen
                 Peng, 30, who plans to be married within the next few
                 years. She felt it was more important to have things
                 "proceed smoothly, like a stable married life and
                 problem-free childbirth".

                 With China's one-child policy, parents want the best for
                 their little emperor or empress. Some actually eschew
                 having a baby this year because they see more stress
                 and increased competition for a place in school, college,
                 and for the first job.

                 A hospitality establishment general manager said:
                 "People are rushing to tie the knot this year because it's
                 the Millennium Year, but when it comes to having
                 babies, they are indifferent about whether it's Dragon
                 Year."

                 State health and family planning officials play down the
                 Dragon Year hype.

                 A spokesman for the State Family Planning Commission
                 told The Sunday Times: "There is no correlation
                 between the number of births and the Chinese zodiac."

                 She said the commission was not planning any special
                 survey on procreation trends this year nor any special
                 campaign to dissuade people from having a Dragon
                 baby.

                 "Having a baby is a personal decision," she said to press
                 home the point that the government did not interfere in
                 when people planned to have babies.

                 A Public Health Ministry spokesman said there were no
                 projections of the birth numbers this year. "We don't
                 have such data. Even if we have such figures, they would
                 only be available at the end of the year."

                 The National Bureau of Statistics said it did not have
                 ready data on the birth numbers in China in 1988, the
                 last Dragon Year.

                 But for comparative purposes, statistics show the birth
                 rate in China then was 22.37 per thousand, lower than
                 1987's rate of 23.33 and 1986's 22.43. It was higher,
                 though, than 1989's 21.58.

                 A medical industry consultant in Beijing, however,
                 believes more babies would be born this year, especially
                 in the countryside where population policies are
                 implemented more loosely. "It's tradition," he said.
 
 

                 CHINA

                 CHINA'S birth rate has fallen gradually since the last
                 Dragon year. The national birthrate per thousand:

                  1988 -- 22.37 (Dragon Year)

                  1989 -- 21.58

                  1990 -- 21.06

                  1991 -- 19.68

                  1992 -- 18.24

                  1993 -- 18.09

                  1994 -- 17.70

                  1995 -- 17.12

                  1996 -- 16.98

                  1997 -- 16.57

                  1998 -- 16.03