With a mix of curiosity and excitement, Samar Keekeni let out a small squeal as she slipped a carrot into the wide, eager mouth of a giant milu deer.

The 28-year-old woman from Tunisia was visiting the Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, in mid-April, and this up-close encounter was unlike anything she had experienced before.

"At first, I was a little scared when one of the deer came right up to my face," she says with a laugh. "But the way it gently took the carrot from my hand — and the way it chewed, so calm and cute — it melted my heart. I just kept feeding more of them as I walked through the reserve."

Though she has seen deer before, this felt different.

"This wasn't like a zoo. I was seeing wild animals in their natural habitat and learning about their lives. It's really impressive," says Keekeni, who came to China in 2023 to work as an English teacher at Jiangnan University in Wuxi. Since then, she has visited 24 cities in eight provinces, driven by a deepening fascination with China's culture, people, and natural beauty.

The reserve is a symbol of conservation triumph. Once extinct in China, a small population of 39 milu deer, also known as Pere David's deer, was reintroduced from the UK in 1986. Over nearly four decades of dedicated breeding and protection efforts, the 39 have flourished, growing into a thriving population of 8,216 deer, accounting for nearly 70 percent of milu deer in the world, according to the reserve administration. Of these, 3,553 roam freely in the wild.

This remarkable transformation is just one reason the reserve has earned its place among the Top 100 Must-See Destinations in Asia in the 2025 Word-of-Mouth Travel Rankings released by leading online travel agency Trip.com Group.

The rankings cover 291 destinations around the globe and were selected through a combination of user reviews, smart algorithms, and curated content, to offer inspiration and guidance from planning to booking.

The list includes some 1,500 hotels, 800 attractions, 800 restaurants, and nearly 400 night experiences, connecting visitors to rewarding travel routes through the Recommended Itineraries feature.