Wild Giant Panda


Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve of Shaanxi
Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve Lies in the northern slope of the main ridge of Qinling Mountains in Zhouzhi county. It is located between from 107 39E to 108 19E and from 33 41N to 33 57N. It is joined to Xiaowangjian Forest Farm to the east and bordered on Foping and Ningshan County to the south. In the west it is adjacent to Laoxiancheng Nature Reserve and joins Houzhenzi Forest Farm to the north.

It covers an area of 56393 hectares. The climate here is moist and rainy with steep terrain. There are luxuriant Forest, fine vegetation and intact ecosystem. The Forest cover rate is as high as 90.5%, as a result of which. It is easy to evaporate from rain and also it is conducive to intercept rain and conserve them. There are 15 rivers within the reserve altogether which all converge into Heihe river. In the whole year the water in the river is so clear that you can see to the bottom, only when the storms come, it occasionally turns turbid. But if the rain stops for a while, it will immediately turn into deep blue. What`s more, the quality of its water is fine. As a result, it is main water catchment for Heihe river Water Supply Project of Xi`an.
In Spring In Autumn		The reserve`s climate is temperate continental monsoon. The annual average temperature is 6.4-8.4 , with rainfall of 600-1100mm. Among four seasons, summer is shorter and winter is longer. Autumn is often rainy, In early spring, the remained snow still spreads over the earth. Until the middle April, It begins to melt.
The landform here is typical of mountains, high in the south and low in the north, with main ridge running from east to west. The branch ranges meet the ridge at right angles with the trend from north to south. The reserve covers an elevation of 1000-2500m Guangtoushan in the west and Caoyazi in the east are two peaks standing opposite each other which are both over 2800m. The soil here is mainly brown ballast.

Zhouzhi reserve is a National one approved by state council in 1989. Its overall objectives are as follows: 1. To protect wildlife (esp. golden monkey) and their habitate; 2. To conserve biodiversity and integrity of forest ecosystem; 3. To profect natural landscape and water catchment of Heihe river.	In Summer In Winter
Qinling Mountains are the watershed between the Yangtse river and the Yellow River and dividing line for the climate in south and the climate in north. Besides, they are boundaries between old northern animal zone and oriental animal zone. And the reserve is located in interior areas of Qinling Mountains, which determines biodiversity. It is investigated that there are 267 species of vertebrates, including 74 of beast, 160 of birds, 5 of fishes, 8 of amphibians and 20 reptiles. Among them, there are 29 key protected wildlife listed by the state, which 70% of national protected species in shaanxi. Of them . 5 species with grade and 24 species with grade . Especially, golden monkeys are distributed more concentratedly and the number of them is large, some 11 groups, over 1210 monkeys.


It is more interesting that the distribution of them is in the far north. The plant kingdom is complicated and manifold. It is characterized by old age, strong transition and conspicuous vertical distribution. With the increase of altitude, the vegetation from bottom to top are classified with composite forests of coniferous trees and broad-leaved trees(1000-2500m), birch grove(2200-2800m) and subalpine coniferous forest(2700-2900m). At present 1069 species of seed plants have been identified. Induding 464 species of ligneous plants and 605 herbaceous plants, which take up 34.2% of the total seed plants in Qinling Mountains. Among them, there are over 90 species of fruit trees, 170 species of medical plants, 12 aromatic plants and over 130 ornamental plants. There are 19 rare plants receiving national key protection, which constitute 42% of the rare plants(45) in shaanxi province.
To protect the variety of living things is the common cause of the whole human being. It has attracted great attention of many far-sighted personage. Zhouzhi natural reserve is carrying out the management items of China`s natural reserve subsidized by Global Environment Fund(that is GEF item). The enforcement of GEF item will be conducive to improve the management standards and general quality of natural reserve. It will more validly bear the responsibility of protecting the variety of living things.