Shennongjia Forestry District is named after the Shennongjia mountainous massif, which is usually considered to be the eastern (and the highest) section of the Daba Mountains. It lies within the Daba Mountains evergreen forests ecoregion. Some of Hubei's highest mountains - which are also the highest mountains of the Daba Shan - are located within the district. The three tallest peaks, located west of Muyu town, are Shennong Deng (3,105 metres elevation), Da Shennongjia (3,052 metres , and Xiao Shennongjia (3,005 metres, on the border with Badong County). Laojun Shan, 2,936 metres tall, is located northeast of Muyu.
There are a number of conservation areas in the district's mountains and wetlands, in particular the world-famous Shennongjia National Nature Reserve, listed
on UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The reserve includes 2,618 square kilometres of forest, and, due to a variety of natural conditions at different elevations, has high plant diversity. One survey by Chinese botanists reports 3,479 higher plant species found in a certain area. The protected animal species include Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, whose population in the district was reported to have grown between 1990 and 2005 from 500 to over 1200. A specially protected 100-square-km area is designated for this endangered primate species.
Banbiyan
Banbiyan, 5 kilometres from Liaowang Tower, is famous for its stone forest and for sightings of the so-called "wild man", the Chinese Yeren. The bamboo that covers the mountain and plain makes a great hiding place for anyone wanting to hang out with Bigfoot.At nearly 2,600 metres, the grassy meadows of Banbiyan frequently play host to a colorful festival of song and dance by the locals. Custom dictates that visitors are welcomed by song. Not quite The Sound of Music, but the spectacle is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many. For centuries, the villagers who live around the shennongjia forest of china's centralhubei province, a forbidding 1000 square mile reserve of high mountains and deepforests, have believed that the wild man, or yeren, lives among them.
http://www.chinatourmap.com/hubei/shennongjia.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shennongjia
360-degree panorama photography by yunzeng liu
