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ASCLATER’S MONAL
Sclater’s monal, a pheasant also known as the
crestless monal, is famous for the male’s dark upper
plumage with iridescence. The females are mostly
streaky brown. In the Gaoligong Mountains, the bird
lives more than 10,500 ft. above sea level and is
considered one of Gaoligong’s three treasures along
with big tree rhododendron and the hoolock gibbon.0707
TAIWANIA
FLOUSIANA GAUSSEN
Taiwania flousiana Gaussen is
a precious evergreen tree and
one of China’s first-level
protected plants, marked by
its longevity and height. A
Taiwania flousiana in the
Gaoligong protected area,
towering 236 ft., was once
recorded as the tallest
tree in China. In this file
photo, researchers with the
Chinese National Geography
magazine climb the tree to
measure its height.10
09
Big tree rhododendron is the largest of all
rhododendrons. Unlike the common azalea
shrubs, big tree rhododendron is a critically
endangered plant that can grow up to 98 ft.
A single leaf can reach a length of 15.7 inches and
its pink flowers blossom in clusters of dozens.
It is mainly found in forests on the
Gaoligong Mountains at an
altitude of over 6,560 ft.BIG TREE RHODODENDRON08
GAOLIGONG
HOOLOCK GIBBON
The Gaoligong hoolock gibbon
is a branch of hoolock gibbons
unique to the Gaoligong
Mountains and first got its name
in 2017. A critically endangered
animal, less than 200
individuals are known to exist.
With their distinctive white
eyebrows and long arms, they
are able to jump across
branches 49 ft. apart with
speed up to 34 mile/hour.A P R I C OT O R A N G E
PA P H I O P E D I LU M
This is an endangered flowering plant of the
orchid family. In northwestern Yunnan, it
grows in rock crevices or well-drained stony
meadows, 4,590 to 6,900 ft. above sea level.
Its flower bud appears green and gradually
transforms to a canary yellow in blossom.TEXT BY CHENG YUEZHU / CHINA DAILY &
PHOTOS BY WANG BIN, ZHANG YAZHOU
AND MU ZHAOHONG / FOR CHINA DAILY
GRAPHICS BY MUKESH MOHANAN &
SHEN WEI / CHINA DAILYA P R I C OT O R A N G E
PA P H I O P E D I LU M
This is an endangered flowering plant of the
orchid family. In northwestern Yunnan, it
grows in rock crevices or well-drained stony
meadows, 4,590 to 6,900 ft. above sea level.06
Nujiang RiverJinsha RiverNujiang RiverJinsha RiverLancang RiverLancang RiverAdditional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.ADVERTISEMENTin the Lancang River Grand Can-
yon, one of the protected areas
inhabited by the endangered
Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys.
Weather kept changing when
they climbed over the Biluo
Snow Mountains located in the
Lancang-Nujiang divide, Liang
says. Biluo’s snow-capped range
extends 88 miles with 15 glaci-
ated peaks at more than 13,120
ft. above sea level. The 14,760-ft.-
high Laowo Mountain stands
out as the most beautiful one.
Elevation drops 10,500 ft. before
reaching the Lancang River.
The expedition lasted 12 days.
When the experts departed, oneof them, Jim Thorsell, a Canadian,
gave Liang a book as a present.
It was a copy of an excerpt
from The Mystery Rivers of
Tibet by the English botanist and
explorer Francis Kingdon Ward,
who traveled across the three
parallel rivers and the watersheds
in 1913 to collect plant species for
British gardening businesses and
scientifi c research.
Liang found their route over-
lapped in many respects with
the one Ward traveled nearly
90 years ago. “Thorsell read the
book and told me the natural
conditions of Three Parallel Riv-
ers area had not changed muchover the years,” Liang says.
Ward devoted the whole fi fth
chapter to the sacred moun-
tain of Kawagebo. It was also
a visiting spot of the UNESCO
expedition. Kawagebo and other
glaciated peaks, such as Biluo,
Baima and Haba snow moun-
tains, represent the spectacular
beauty of the area.
In addition to the magnifi cent
skyline of the glaciers, the area is
also granted with other out-
standing scenic landforms, such
as alpine karst, especially the
Stone Moon above the Nujiang
Grand Canyon and the “tortoise
shell” of the alpine Danxia, alandform characterized by its
reddish sandstone features.
As the elevation drops from
more than 22,110 ft. to 2,490 ft.,
the area presents every kind of
natural views in the Northern
Hemisphere except those of
oceans and deserts — glaciers,
alpine valleys, alpine lakes, alpine
meadows, broadleaved and
coniferous forests and so on.
Having witnessed a literal sea
change, the area is a museum of
geology, housing a collection of
diverse rock types, such as alpine
sandstone landforms, granite
monolith and the range of karst.
Despite bordering tropical
Myanmar to the west, the area
provides various climates for
creatures living in subtropical,
temperate and frigid zones,
making it the richest biodiversity
region in China.
Such unique geographical loca-
tions and hydrogeological and
weather conditions create diverse
atmospheres, which is summa-
rized by locals as “the weather
changes every three miles”.
Being located at the juncture of
East Asia, Southeast Asia and the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the area
not only provides a corridor for
the migration of species, endemic
or otherwise, but also preserves
species that can rightly be called
living fossil — for example, the Cy-
athea tree ferns which hark back
to the time of the dinosaurs.
This area, described by
locals as “tens of thousands of
creatures living on one moun-
tain”, shelters more than 20% of
higher plant species (of relatively
complex or advanced charac-
teristics) and 25% of animal
species in all of China.
Big tree rhododendron
is native to the Gaoligong
Mountains. Since 2015 people
have sought to cultivate the
critically endangered plant.
T h e g o o d n e w s i s t h a t 6 0 %
of the 80 saplings planted in the
wild in 2017 have survived. So
have the 200 saplings planted in
May last year.
Today as more creatures
perish at an ever-increasing
speed around the world, in
the inaccessible mountains of
the Three Parallel Rivers, new
species are discovered, almost
every year. This, alone, makes it
an authentic natural wonder.