rsync and symlinks...how to preserve links but not follow dir symlinks

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to figure out how to archive a large directory tree (200GB
+) while preserving symbolic links, but not following them.

"rsync -ax source_dir destination_dir" preserves symbolic links, and
at the same time follows links to directories and creates multiple
parallel copies of my parts of my tree as it recurses. (a 40 GB
branch might bloat to 160 GB because rsync follows sym links to other
directories in the same tree and copies the contents again and again).

Anyone know how to keep links but not follow them?

Thank you for your assistance!

Kevin Ready
Toshiba America Electronic Components
STI Design Center
Austin, Texas