China is closing down a third of its ivory retailers and factories on Friday before a formal ban on its ivory trade by the end of 2017.

As the world's largest importer and user of elephant ivory tusks, China shuts 67 carving factories and shops on Friday with the remaining 105 to close by the end of the year, according to its Forestry Administration.

Officials from the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species will be present to witness the shutdown.

To the delight of activists and conservationists, it marks an end to a lucrative but brutal trade.

Yet Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has not yet followed suit despite outlining a plan last year to ban ivory trading within five years.

The price of ivory in China has dropped by almost two thirds since the country revealed plans to end the legal trade later in the year.

In early 2014, tusks cost on average £1,700 per kilogram, but by February 20177 this had dropped to less than £600.

Experts have claimed Chinese demand for tusks - at one point accounting for 70% of global demand - has driven African elephants towards extinction.

Experts estimate up to 30,000 elephants are killed by poachers each year to meet demand for ivory.