HAVEN OF FAUNA & FLORA
Here are 10 iconic species
found in the area:MY
AThe Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected
Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, refers to
the area in the northwestern part of Yunnan
province featuring three rivers:
Jinsha (upstream of the Yangtze)
Lancang (known as Mekong outside of China) and
Nujiang (known as Salween in Myanmar)
They run roughly parallel, north to south,
for more than 106 miles. The shortest distance
between the Jinsha and Lancang rivers is
41 miles, while that between Lancang and
Nujiang is less than 12 miles.
With an altitude ranging from 2,490 ft. to
22,110 ft. above sea level, the area includes
15 protected areas categorized into eight
geographical clusters.MECONOPSIS PSEUDOVENUSTA
Meconopsis pseudovenusta is a flowering
plant found in the high-altitude meadows or
on talus slopes. To protect itself from
ultraviolet rays, the flower needs to
accumulate more anthocyani-
dins, hence appearing blue
or purple. Because of the
adverse high-altitude
environment, most plants of the
Meconopsis genus conserve
energy by blossoming only
once in a lifetime.02
MISHMI TAKIN
The Mishmi takin is an endangered
goat-antelope of the Bovidae family. In
the Gaoligong Mountains, it’s the largest
wild animal species. With “face of a horse,
horns of a deer, hooves of an ox, tail of a
donkey”, it is considered one of the
country’s most precious animals living
in mountain forests alongside the giant
panda and snub-nosed monkey.03030303
YUNNAN SNUB-NOSED MONKEY
The Yunnan snub-nosed monkey lives at the
highest altitude of any primate, apart from
humans. The primary forests, 9,840 ft. above
sea level in Yunnan Baima Snow Mountain
National Nature Reserve, are its main habitat.
Recognized by its pink, pouting lips and “punk
hairstyle”, it’s a social animal with strong
family bonds and is considered to be the
“elf of the snow mountains”.01
EMERALD DRAGON LIZARD
The emerald dragon lizard is a squamate
reptile unique to China. Discovered in 2016,
it has only been found in the dry-hot valleys
of Dechen and Weixi counties in northwest-
ern Yunnan province. With a length of less
than 11.8 inches, the males are marked by a
bright emerald color, while the females are
mostly yellowish or grayish brown.0505
04
SAUSSUREA
MEDUSA MAXIM.
Saussurea medusa
Maxim. is a precious
flowering plant in the
Saussurea genus in the
Asteraceae family. It grows on the
alpine subnival belt, an area just below
the permanently snow-covered zone and
the highest of all terrestrial ecosystems
inhabited by seed plants. Its furry leaves
serve to absorb and preserve warmth as
well as protect the pollen.It is a story transcending time,
a witness of sea changes, a land
with “mystery rivers”, an ark of life,
a symphony of natural wonders,
a museum sheltering the eternal
and the transitional, a piece of
evidence showing that life can be
both tough and frail, and a history
that records people’s changing
perceptions of nature.
It is the Three Parallel Rivers
of Yunnan Protected Areas in
northwestern Yunnan province of
Southwest China, which shares a
border with Myanmar.
The TPR’s story began about
40 million years ago, when
the Indian Plate collided with
the Eurasian Plate, lifting the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and
creating the rumpled Hengduan
Mountains.
The roof of the world, the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, cradles
the sources of the longest rivers
in Asia. In between the precipi-
tous north-south ranges of the
rippling Hengduan Mountains run
a mighty trio of waterways — the
Nujiang in the west, the Lancang
in the middle and the Jinsha in
the east.
Respectively they are the
upper streams of the Salween
River, which runs through
Myanmar, the Mekong River and
the Yangtze River, the world’s
third-longest watercourse.
One singular thing about
the three rivers is that they run
abreast 106 miles in Yunnan
before the Jinsha River turns
drastically northeast and fi nally
meets the East China Sea.
Another is that they run
unusually closely to each other.
The shortest distance betweenLancang and Jinsha measures 41
miles, and between Lancang and
Nujiang the distance is less than
12 miles.
That was how in 1985, on a
satellite map this geographical
wonder drew the attention of
an expert from UNESCO, which
marked the commencement of
a long journey to apply for the
World Heritage List.
UNESCO selects world
heritage sites according to four
criteria: aesthetic importance,
outstanding examples repre-
senting major stages of Earth’s
history, exceptional examples of
signifi cant ongoing ecological
and biological processes, and the
most signifi cant natural habitats
for in-situ conservation of bio-
logical diversity. Meeting one of
them is adequate.
The Three Parallel Rivers of
Yunnan Protected Areas went on
the list in 2003. Liang Yongning,
a professor of geology from Kun-
ming University of Science and
Technology in Yunnan, says it is
the only world heritage site in
China that meets all four criteria.
Covering 6,564 square miles,
the site consists of 15 diff er-
ent protected areas that have
been divided into eight clusters,
each providing a representative
sample of the full range of the
biological and geological diver-
sity of the Hengduan Mountains,
Shangri-La included.
Back in the autumn of 2002,
Liang, an expert in the team pre-
paring the Three Parallel Rivers’
application for the list, received
two experts from UNESCO who
were sent to investigate the area.
Two decades ago in the area
lived the poorest people in
China, blocked by the unscal-
able mountains and rushingrivers. Roads were carved into
escarpments and some bridges
were merely cables along which
people slid over roaring torrents
together with their animals.
“We thought it would take one
month to complete the expedi-
tion because we needed to cross
the three rivers and the divides
and watersheds in between, to
see all of them,” Liang says. “At
that time there was no highway
connecting the rivers.”
However, no matter how big
the sites are, UNESCO allows at
most two-week investigations.
With the help of locals, they
planned an east-west route thatstarted from the Jinsha River
and ended west of Gaoligong
Mountains located on the west
bank of the Nujiang River.
“We tried everything,” Liang
says. “If there was a highway we
took off -road vehicles, if there
was no highway we rode horses,
and if even horses couldn’t go on,
we went on foot.”
It was a hard expedition. In
the Three Parallel Rivers area, a
world of sierras, stand 118 glaci-
ated peaks of more than 16,400
ft. above sea level. The highest
is Kawagebo Peak (22,110 ft.)
in Dechen county of Dechen
Tibetan autonomous prefecture,LEGENDARY
LAND OF
MYSTERY
China Watch materials are distributed by China Daily Distribution Corp. on behalf of China Daily, Beijing, China.ADVERTISEMENTCHINA WATCH
PRESENTED BY CHINA DAILY
BY YANG YANG
and LI YINGQING
Three rivers provide the lifeblood of
an enchanted area that is a natural wonder