Background

The Dinghu Mountain is located on the outskirts of Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province in South China, and at the Tropic of Cancer, which has warm and moisture climate with tree coverage rate reaching more than 80 percent. The whole Tropic of Cancer is mainly deserts and dry grassland except the Dinghu Mountain, which has dense primeval forests, and is known as an oasis of the desert belt of the Tropic of Cancer. In 1956, the first Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) approved a resolution to establish the country's first batch of nature reserves including the Dinghu Mountain. In 1979, the Dinghu Nature Reserve was listed into the Man and Nature Biosphere by the United Nations.

The Dinghu Mountain Nature Reserve covers 113 hectares with many types of vegetation. Included are subtropics monsoon evergreen broadleaf forest, subtropics broadleaf forest, valley rain forest, coniferous forest, mixed broadleaf and coniferous forest and shrubs. The monsoon broadleaf forest has a history of more than 400 years and has kept intact in the South Asian forest. Rich in fauna and flora resources, the Dinghu Mountain has 1,700 high-grade plant species including ford erythropheum and wild Litchi, rare trees listed for the state top protection, relic species including cyathea spinulosa and cycas, and rare plants such Dinghu Chinese ilex, as well as a large amount of birds and animals. The forests in the Dinghu Mountain are unique in the world and still keep their primitive feature. They are the most valuable natural forests in the study and recognition of the inter pattern and other aspects of the ecological balance of the nature. With an approval of the State Council, the Dinghu Mountain Nature Reserve has become an international research base, which has aroused the interest of the international science circle.

The Dinghu Mountain is also a Well-known Chinese sacred place of Buddhism. It has the Bai Yun (white cloud) Temple built in the Tang dynasty (618), and the Qing Yun Temple in the Ming Dynasty amidst the natural subtropics evergreen broadleaf forest.

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