|
 Multifarious
weather conditions have endowed China with an abundance of flora and fauna
resources, and that is why most of the farm crops, plants and wildlife in
the world can be found in this country.
No country is so teeming with wildlife as China, home to more than
2,000 species of terrestrial vertebrates, 1,189 species of birds, 500
species of beasts, 210 species of amphibians, and 320 species of reptiles.
Many animals are indigenous to China, such as giant panda, golden-haired
monkey, unicorn taken, white-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris), and Chinese
alligator.
China also boasts more than 32,000species of higher plants.
Metasequoia, Cathaya argyrophylla, Pseudolarix amabilis, Eucommia ulmoides,
and Fokienia hodginsii are indigenous trees in China. Hence China's
nickname, 'World Treasury of Trees'. Some of the country's oldest trees have
made a name for themselves for their close association with Chinese history.
A cypress 20 metres in height and 10 metres in maximum girth in the Yellow
Emperor's Temple in Huangling County, Shaanxi Province, is reputedly the
nation's king of cypresses. The Zhou-dynasty cypress in the Jinci Temple in
Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, is more than 3,000 years in age. China is also
lauded as the 'Mother of World Horticulture' for a good variety of exotic
flowers it has developed, such as peony, plum, winter jasmine and azalea.
More than 700 nature reserves have been established across the
country to protect and preserve the native animals and plants, especially
the endangered species. By June 1998, a total of 14 nature reserves - the
Changbai Mountains, Mount Wuyi, Shennongjia, Fanjing Mountain, Dinghu Hill,
Xilin Gol, Bogda, Fenglin, Yancheng, Xishuangbanna, Maolan, Wolong, Tianmu
Mountain, and Jiuzhaigou Gully - had become part of UNESCO's Man and
Biosphere Program.
With abundant natural resource, China is a world power in natural
resource, the third largest country of the world, third in the world in the
total value of verified deposits of mineral resources, fourth in the world
in farmland acreage, and sixth in forest acreage. Its rivers rank sixth in
total annual runoffs.
Another basic fact about China is that despite its immense natural
resource aggregates, it is resource-poor on a per-capita basis, considering
its huge population. |
