China is one of the countries with the greatest diversity of
wildlife in the world. There are more than 4,400 species of
vertebrates, more than 10 percent of the world's total. There are
nearly 500 animal species, 1,189 species of birds, more than 320
species of reptiles and 210 species of amphibians. Wildlife peculiar
to China includes such well-known animals as the giant panda,
golden-haired monkey, South China tiger, brown-eared pheasant,
white-flag dolphin, Chinese alligator and red-crowned crane,
totaling more than 100 species. The giant panda is an especially
attractive sight. Heavily built, it has a docile disposition, and is
delightfully adorable. The 1.2-m-tall red-crowned crane is a
snow-white migratory bird. A distinctive patch of red skin tops its
grey-brown head, hence its name. The white-flag dolphin is one of
only two species of freshwater whale in the world. In 1980, a male
white-flag dolphin was caught for the first time in the Yangtze
River, which aroused great interest among dolphin researchers
worldwide.
China has some of the most abundant plant life in the world. There
are more than 32,000 species of higher plants, and almost all the
major plants that grow in the northern hemisphere's frigid,
temperate and tropical zones are represented in China. In addition,
there are more than 7,000 species of woody plants, including 2,800
tree species. The metasequoia, Chinese cypress, cathaya tree, China
fir, golden larch, Taiwan fir, Fujian cypress, dove-tree, eucommia
and camplotheca acuminata are found only in China. The metasequoia,
a tall species of arbor, is considered as one of the oldest and
rarest plants in the world. The golden larch, one of only five
species of rare garden trees in the world, grow in the mountain
areas in the Yangtze River valley. Its coin-shaped leaves on short
branches are green in spring and summer, turning yellow in autumn.
China is home to more than 2,000 species of edible plants and 3,000
species of medicinal plants. Ginseng from the Changbai Mountains,
safflowers from Tibet, Chinese wolfberry from Ningxia and
notoginseng from Yunnan and Guizhou are particularly well-known
Chinese herbal medicines. There is a wide variety of flowering
plants. A flower indigenous to China, the elegant and graceful peony
is treasured as the "color of the nation and the scent of heaven." Three famous species of flowers--the azalea, fairy primrose and
rough gentian--grow in southwest China. During the flowering period,
mountain slopes covered with flowers in a riot of colors form a
delightful contrast with undulating ridges and peaks.
In a concerted effort to protect the nation's zoological and
botanical resources, and save species close to extinction, China has
established 1.146 nature reserves to protect forests and wildlife,
with a total area of 88.13 million ha. The 15 nature reserves in
China, namely, Sichuan's Wolong and Jiuzhaigou, Jilin's Changbai
Mountains, Guangdong's Dinghu Mountains, Guizhou's Fanjing
Mountains, Fujian's Wuyi Mountains, Hubei's Shennongjia, Inner
Mongolia's Xilingol, Xinjiang's Mt. Bogda, Yunnan's Xishuangbanna,
Jiangsu's Yancheng, Zhejiang's Tianmu Mountains Nanji and Islands
Guizhou's Maolan and Heilongjiang's Fenglin, have joined the "International People and Bio-sphere Protection Network." Heilongjiang's Zhalong, Jilin's Xianghai, Hunan's Dongting Lake,
Jiangxi's Poyang Lake, Qinghai's Bird Island, Hainan's Dongzhai
Harbor and Hong Kong's Mai Po have been included in the listing of
the world's important wetlands. |
Western
China
