Laojun Mountain () is a mountain in the northwest part of

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

, China. It is part of the Laojun Mountain region, which includes an area of with elevations ranging from . The region includes four

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Yulong Yulong may refer to: * Yulong Naxi Autonomous County (), of Lijiang, Yunnan * Yulong Snow Mountain (), or Jade Dragon Snow Mountain * Yulong River (), in Guangxi * Yulongsi Formation, in Yunnan * Yulong, Xingyang (), town in Xingyang City, Henan ...

Jianchuan Jianchuan County () is a county in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture located in the western part of Yunnan Province, China. The county is about southwest of Lijiang and north of Dali. The historical town of Shaxi in the southeast of the coun ...

, Lanping, and Weixi. The western part of the region adjoins the

Lancang River The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annuall ...

, while the eastern part is contiguous with the

Jinsha River The Jinsha River (, Tibetan: Dri Chu, འབྲི་ཆུ) is the Chinese name for the upper stretches of the Yangtze River. It flows through the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan in western China. The river passes through Tiger L ...

. The region was included in the

Three Parallel Rivers The Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas () is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Yunnan province, China. It lies within the drainage basins of the upper reaches of the Jinsha (Yangtze), Lancang (Mekong) and Nujiang (Salween) rivers, in t ...

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

in 2003, and the Laojun Mountain National Park was announced in January 2009.

Conservation

Laojun Mountain region is a

biodiversity hotspot A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the co ...

. Laojun Mountain has over 170 species of macrofungi (

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...

s), about 10% of all

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

s in the world, and it is one of the few remaining places where the endangered

Yunnan snub-nosed monkey The black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (''Rhinopithecus bieti''), also known as the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey, is a large black and white primate that lives only in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, where it is known to the locals as the Yun ...

(''Rhinopithecus bieti'') can be found. In 2015, TNC established a conservancy program on the mountain, in Liju village, concerning the animal. It offers business opportunities and training to local residents, to provide alternatives to

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

and logging, in order to protect the monkeys.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite journal , vauthors=Qiang W, XingJin H, SongDong Z, Jun P, WeiWei C , title=Floristic analysis of seed plants of Laojun Mountain Nature Reserve in Pingshan County, Sichuan Province , journal=Journal of Tropical and Subtropical Botany , year=2007 , volume=15 , issue=1 , pages=71–76 , language=Chinese , issn=1005-3395 {{cite journal , vauthors=Ying Z, DeQun Z, TongShen Z, XiaoKun O , title=New records and distribution of macrofungi in Laojun Mountain, Northwest Yunnan, China , journal=Mycosystema , volume=31 , issue=2 , pages=196–212 , issn=1672-6472 {{cite journal , vauthors=Zhang Y, Qun Zhou D, Zhao Q, Xin Zhou T, Hyde KD , title=Diversity and ecological distribution of macrofungi in the Laojun Mountain region, southwestern China , journal=Biodiversity and Conservation , year=2010 , volume=19 , issue=12 , pages=3545–3563 , doi=10.1007/s10531-010-9915-9, s2cid=24882278 {{cite journal , vauthors=Zhou DQ, Grumbine RE , title=National parks in China: Experiments with protecting nature and human livelihoods in Yunnan province, People's Republic of China (PRC) , journal=Biological Conservation , year=2011 , volume=144 , issue=5 , pages=1314–1321 , doi=10.1016/j.biocon.2011.01.002 Mountains of Yunnan Geography of Lijiang

Conservation

See also

References