Author: Hangyu (member of Chinese Writers Association), author of Time of Luyao-Witness the Last Days of Luyao, etc. )
The giant panda, known as the "living fossil" in the animal kingdom, has survived for 8 million years on earth, and has interpreted the legend of life. China’s brilliant achievements in protecting wild giant pandas have attracted worldwide attention. As the national treasure of China, the naive giant panda has built a bridge between China and the world.
Photo courtesy of Qinling Giant Panda Shaanxi Forestry Bureau
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Qinling Mountain is a magical and great mountain.
The majestic Qinling Mountains are vast, heavy and majestic. It starts from Gansu and Qinghai in the west and reaches the west of Henan in the east, with a length of about 1,600 kilometers. The main body is located in the south of Shaanxi and the north of Sichuan, showing an east-west trend, which is the dividing line between the north and south of China and the watershed between the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin.
The Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi are magnificent, towering and colorful. The mountains are surrounded by mountains, and the mountains are connected with the mountains. The mountains and valleys and basins form beautiful scenery. Because of the natural climate barrier and water source nourishment, the land of Qinchuan in 800 miles is fertile and beautiful, and it has the peerless elegance of Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties.
Back to more than 30 years ago, I lived in Xi ‘an at the foot of Qinling Mountain. I often climbed the ancient city wall of Xi ‘an at night, looked up at the lush Qinling Mountains and felt the magic, majesty and uniqueness of the Qinling Mountains. During that period, I would often sneak into Huashan, Zhongnanshan, Wang Shunshan, Taibai Mountain and Mount Li in the hinterland of Qinling with my friends … and watch the beautiful mountains, rivers, trees, flowers and cultural landscapes of Qinling at close range.
Qinling stands tall and vigorous.
I wonder how the Qinling Mountains, lying between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, suddenly stood up like such a mountain in the 800-mile Qinchuan exhibition. Moreover, it is arranged so neatly that there is no transition or buffer at all. What kind of historical and cultural connotation does it carry and how many mysterious wild animals and plants are stored?
Photo courtesy of Qinling Giant Panda Shaanxi Forestry Bureau
It turns out that Qinling Mountain is a mountain system composed of thousands of peaks formed after hundreds of millions of years of crustal movement. How violent the crustal movement should be! How can you support a huge mountain system that stretches for more than 1000 kilometers? How much energy that needs!
During the Caledonian movement 375 million years ago, the southern slope of the Qinling Mountains gradually lifted out of the sea. In the Hercynian movement 230 million years ago, the northern slope of Qinling began to rise, exposing the sea; During the Indo-Chinese Movement 195 million years ago, the Qinling Mountains were completely isolated from the sea, and its majestic posture basically took shape. After about 80 million years of strong transformation of Yanshan movement and Himalayan movement, the Qinling Mountains as complete as it is now were formed.
Qinling Mountain is the "Father Mountain" of the Chinese nation and the backbone of China.
So, what was the Qinling Mountains like in the past, also called Qinling Mountains? Who named the Qinling Mountains?
According to historical records, during the Qin and Western Han Dynasties, the Qinling Mountains were really not called Qinling Mountains, but were called Nanshan Mountains. Sima Qian’s Biography of Qin Shihuang in Historical Records once wrote to Epang Palace, in which "Zhou Chi is a pavilion road, from his royal highness to Nanshan. The "Nanshan", which means that the top of Nanshan is a que, should be a mountain range south of Xianyang. When Sima Qian quoted Sima Xiangru’s Poems on Shanglin and Mourning for Qin Ershi in Biography of Sima Xiangru, there was also a description of "the towering South Mountain" and "the jagged South Mountain". In Sima Qian’s Historical Records, there is no mention of "Qinling Mountain".
When was the huge mountain range across Qin called "Qinling"? The two capitals Fu written by Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, in the West Capital Fu, there is a description of "the Qinling Mountains, the North Fu", and in the East Capital Fu, there is also a description of "the Qinling Mountains, the Jiuzhang Mountains, the Jingzhi River and the Weihe River". It can be said that in the pre-Qin Dynasty and even the Western Han Dynasty, there was no such title as "Qinling Mountain", but Qinling Mountain was called "Nanshan Mountain", and it was not until Ban Gu wrote "Two Capitals Fu" that Qinling Mountain first appeared in historical records.
Photo courtesy of Shaanxi Forestry Bureau, Qinling brown giant panda "Qizai"
The majestic Qinling Mountains are a magnificent natural barrier.
The Qinling Mountains, south of Xi ‘an, are covered with a touch of green mountains, lush and green, misty and looming, and the gullies and valleys are full of magnificence. The most spectacular natural landscape belongs to the cuckoo for the first time.
Rhododendron is distributed in Taibai Mountain, Wang Shunshan, Niubeiliang and Qin Chu Ancient Road in Qinling Mountains.
"Sunshot blood beads will drop to the ground, and the wind will turn over the flames to burn people." The well-known poem in Bai Juyi’s "Shan Shiliu sends Yuan Jiu" describes the cuckoo in Qinling Mountains.
In Qinling Mountains, Du Fu Ling, which stretches for 10 kilometers, is the best place to watch Du Fu. The trees are bright red, clusters of pink and clusters of purple, burning heartily between the headlands and gullies like flames …
Qinling Mountain has the largest national botanical garden in the world, with a planned area of 639 square kilometers, including 575.31 square kilometers of in-situ biological reserves, 10 square kilometers of ex-situ plant reserves, 16 square kilometers of ex-situ animal reserves and 37.69 square kilometers of compound ecological functional zones. From the area alone, we can know how big the Qinling Mountains are. The Botanical Garden has collected, protected and displayed more than 5,000 species of characteristic plants, rare, endangered and extremely small national key protected plants, 154 species of animals and 465 species of insects in Qinba Mountain area, which can be called the kingdom of animals and plants.
Qinling scenery Photo courtesy of Shaanxi Forestry Bureau
The giant panda, golden monkey, crested ibis and takin in Qinling Mountains all lead the way, forming a beautiful picture of harmony between man and nature. Tulips, corn poppy, rhododendrons and peonies … are blooming, forming a world of flowers and an ocean of flowers.
A Qinling Mountain is half a history of China.
The vast Qinling Mountains bear the glorious history of the Chinese nation and show the natural beauty of national parks.
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The beauty of Qinling lies in a mountain, a barrier, a ridge and a picture.
In the Tang Dynasty, Dan Wen Yuan described the Qinling Mountains in "Qin Lingyun Screen": "The screen is green and green, and the area around Qinglan is oblique. Looking far out of Tongchuan, several smoke villages lock white clouds. "
I walked along the foot of the Qinling Mountains and came to the scenic Louguantai, which was once the Dojo of Laozi’s lecture according to historical records. Louguantai has the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center, which is also a wildlife rescue station. You can observe the giant panda, golden monkey, takin and crested ibis known as the "four treasures" of Qinling Mountain at close range. These wild animals are very clever. If they are sick or injured, or abandoned in their infancy, they will come to places where people are asking for help.
It is a lifelong regret not to see the takin in Qinling. George beals schaller, a famous American zoologist, called the takin "six unlike". Its back is like a brown bear, its hind legs are like hyenas, its face is like a moose, its tail is like a goat and its horns are like wildebeests. The takin, which lives in Qinling Mountains, is stout and rough. The few takins in Louguantai are all rescued. They seem to forget that they are the dominant animals, and they look obedient and depressed, not as wild as they were in the wild.
Takins like to live in groups at high altitude, ranging from 20 to 30 in each group, and 50 to hundreds of them. They are fierce and mighty. Takins are mostly in the back beam of Qinling cattle, and they are in droves. If you go sightseeing, you may meet again. But don’t worry, takins have principles and rules, and they won’t attack easily as long as they don’t occupy their territory or hurt them.
The golden monkey in Qinling Mountain is also very cute, with beautiful hair and sparkling light. It is said that they come from Sichuan, so they are called Sichuan golden monkey. Smart, lively and naughty are their nature, and some people are crazy. They like to swing on the branches with their tails held high, their small eyes flashing, and they suddenly make a few kites turn over, or make faces, which makes the children who come here to study want to hug them.
Zhu Xi, a national treasure, is known as the "Oriental jewel" among birds, with white feathers, bright red crown, dark long mouth and slender feet. Yangxian county in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province is their main habitat. When it was discovered in 1981, the population was only seven, but by 2023 it had multiplied to more than 9,000. The protection of crested ibis has become a successful case of saving endangered species in the world.
The most popular one here is the national treasure giant panda. It is not uncommon to meet wild giant pandas in Qinling, and I have such an experience. It was on the way back to Taibai Mountain National Forest Park. Suddenly, a giant panda jumped out of the Woods and swayed across the road. When I stopped to look again, it was out of sight.
I think the giant panda must have run down the mountain to drink water in the ditch.
In the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center, the four treasures of Qinling Mountain can be seen all at once, and a brown giant panda deeply attracted my attention and subverted my cognition-how can there be a brown giant panda? Why is it different from other giant pandas? Is it the same species as the giant panda with dark circles and a "black vest"?
In fact, the brown giant panda is also a member of the giant panda family. As for how it became brown, there is no scientific and reasonable explanation, which needs further study and discussion by zoologists. A white wild giant panda was also found in Wolong National Nature Reserve, Sichuan Province, which was dubbed as a "unloaded" national treasure.
This brown giant panda was abandoned by its mother two months after birth. On November 1, 2009, the abandoned brown panda cub was found in Foping, named "Qizai". This is the only brown giant panda in captivity in the world, and people affectionately call it "chocolate bear". The brown giant panda not only has a special coat color, but also has a special taste. Compared with bamboo, it prefers carrots.
At first glance, the brown giant panda kept in the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center is exactly the same as the general giant panda except for its coat color. I shouted curiously: "Seven, come here!"
The brown giant panda seemed to understand me, casually came up to me, and even gave two gentle calls. What is it talking about?
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The pulse inherits the Qinling Mountains, and it is covered by the world.
Turn over the majestic Qinling Mountains and walk into Foping, which is located in the hinterland of Qinling Mountains.
Foping, with a population of only 40,000, may be the only county town in China without traffic lights. On both sides of the county seat are tall and mighty mountains, green and indomitable spirit. At the foot of the mountain, there are irregular buildings, high or low, new or old. A Qingjiao River bisects the county seat.
Foping is beautiful, dreamy and charming. Blue sky, green mountains, clear water, gentle wind, simple people. Here, you can enjoy the moisture of the natural oxygen bar and enjoy the beautiful scenery of nature.
The most beautiful place in Foping is Liangfengya. Liangfengya, the name is full of poetry. Standing on the cool breeze, feel the softness of the wind. Suddenly, a wooden sign caught my attention. When I took a closer look, I realized that Liangfengya is an entrance of Guanyinshan National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi Province, which is adjacent to Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve in the north and Tianhuashan National Nature Reserve in the east, with an area of 13,534 hectares. It is the connecting link of the giant panda reserve group, with 1,569 species of higher plants, such as Taxus chinensis, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, water green tree, etc., and the national key protected wild animals are giant panda, takin and antelope.
There is a giant panda in Liangfengya, which is a god given to nature by God.
Boarding the watchtower of Liangfengya, I looked everywhere, and fir trees, old elms, and arrow bamboo, which have been in existence for hundreds of years, covered the earth. I wonder, will there be a chubby giant panda miraculously appearing at this time? Even if I can see a group of majestic takins, or monkey with a grimace, it’s not worthwhile for me to come here.
It is entirely possible to meet a giant panda in Liangfengya. The book "Foping Waiting for You" records such a story: a pair of lovers came to Liangfengya to play, climbed the watchtower, and danced with excitement in the face of the beautiful scenery. Watching the scenery of the cool breeze mountain promontory, they excitedly walked down from the watchtower, and a moving picture quietly came into view. A young giant panda is rummaging through the girl’s bag under the tower, thinking that there is something delicious in it. However, there was only cosmetics in the girl’s small bag. The young giant panda licked it with its tongue and bit it with its teeth, but it didn’t taste good at all, not as good as the bamboo in the mountain forest. It swayed its chubby body in disappointment and waddled into the dense forest.
This is the best gift from Liangfengya to the couple.
So, what kind of gift will it give me? Will I meet a panda, too?
It is said that in Liangfengya, some people can see giant pandas several times a day. But I was so unlucky that I saw nothing but firs, old elms and butterflies dancing around flowers and plants.
I didn’t meet a giant panda in Liangfengya, and I was a little disheartened. Suddenly, three mules swinging their tails attracted me. I don’t understand why there are mules here. What’s with the mule? Only after listening to the introduction of the staff of the reserve did we know that the mule, like the giant panda, is the treasure of the reserve. Especially in winter, the snow covered Liangfengya, the road was blocked, the car couldn’t go, and the supply was interrupted. It was all because mules stepped on the thick snow, slipped step by step, and climbed the ditch to send materials to the reserve continuously, which ensured the work and life of the brothers who were on duty in the reserve all the year round, and relieved their worries.
I pay tribute to the first-line brothers in the reserve, but also to the mule!
Over Liangfengya, not far away is Panda Valley. As the name implies, Panda Valley is a dense habitat for wild giant pandas in Qinling Mountains. It is said that there is a wild giant panda every 1.5 square kilometers in the core area of the reserve, which is the place with the highest density of wild giant pandas and the highest probability of meeting them.
In 1985, Dandan, the world’s first brown giant panda, was discovered in Foping, which attracted great attention from people at home and abroad. In the Qinling Mountains, five brown giant pandas were photographed by infrared cameras in the nature reserve, including four in Foping and one in Yangxian, which is adjacent to Foping. Then, will there be a brown panda population in Qinling?
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The giant panda, known as the "living fossil" in the animal kingdom, has survived for 8 million years on earth, and has interpreted the legend of life. Its ancestor is the original panda, which evolved into a small panda and a Papilio panda through a long and complicated process, and it took a long and tortuous walk to the present to form such a black and white, naive and chubby appearance.
Giant pandas are lazy, like to act alone, have their own territory and have a wide range of activities. They mark territory and declare sovereignty through special smells. The remarkable characteristics of giant pandas are that they have six toes, are good at climbing trees, and like to sleep comfortably in trees; And they have sharp teeth, which are specially used to chew bamboo. They are veritable "foodies". An adult giant panda can eat 40 kilograms of bamboo a day, and the digestion time is very short. It is almost pulled out after eating, and the feces are odorless and have the fragrance of bamboo. Researchers can find out the population of pandas by identifying individuals through bamboo stem bites excreted by pandas, which is called "scientific research with flavor".
As we all know, the giant panda is a national treasure of China and a native of China.
On the magical land of China, giant pandas are concentrated in six narrow zones of Shaanxi, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, including Qinling, Qionglai, Minshan, Liangshan, Daxiangling and Xiaoxiangling, with a total of 33 local populations. There are two subspecies of wild giant pandas. One is concentrated in Shaanxi and Gansu, and is called Qinling Giant Panda. The other is concentrated in Sichuan, called Sichuan Giant Panda. The difference between the two giant panda subspecies is that the Qinling giant panda has a small head and big teeth, while the Sichuan giant panda has a big head and small teeth.
In 2017, China launched the pilot system of the Giant Panda National Park. After five years of coordinated operations, the Giant Panda National Park was formally established in October 2021, and an ecological corridor of 27,000 square kilometers was built for giant pandas, connecting artificially demarcated alpine canyons and virgin forests into 82 giant panda protected areas in series, providing natural flowing space for giant pandas and providing China experience for wildlife protection in the world.
The giant panda is a rare species in the world, and it is very difficult to breed. Generally, it is estrus and mating from April to May every year, and it takes only 2 to 3 months to give birth to panda cubs. More than 100 kilograms of giant pandas, pregnant for two or three months, gave birth to panda cubs the size of mice, and the weight ratio of mother to baby was 1000: 1, which was beyond people’s imagination. Moreover, the giant panda is an incompetent mother and has no parenting experience. The cubs are basically left to fend for themselves, and the survival rate is very low. However, the giant panda has not been extinct, and it is still active on the earth, and it is increasing, which has a lot to do with its tenacious vitality, the establishment of protected areas, the improvement of habitats, the avoidance of inbreeding, scientific artificial breeding, and the release in the wild.
On July 7th, 2021, the State Council Information Office held a press conference, announcing that the number of giant pandas in the wild in China reached more than 1,800, and the threatened level was reduced from endangered to vulnerable. According to the monitoring data of the Giant Panda Center, the number of wild giant pandas is 1,864. It can be said that China has made brilliant achievements in protecting wild giant pandas that have attracted worldwide attention.
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In fact, China has only discovered and known the giant panda for more than 100 years.
According to historical records, David, a French naturalist and priest, preached in China for 10 years. He was the first naturalist to go to the mountainous area on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China, and based on the Catholic Church secretly built by the French Far East Church in Dengchigou, Ya ‘an, Sichuan, he collected a large number of animal and plant specimens and living bodies. In February, 1869, David started his second expedition to the interior of China. When he visited the Red Peak in Baoxing, he accidentally found a black and white animal fur on the wall of a landlord named Li. This animal fur was never recorded and described in traditional natural history, and he was particularly curious. According to local villagers, this kind of animal often haunts the jungle and can be encountered from time to time. David believes that this animal will become a new discovery in science. So, he tried his best to hire villagers to collect 21% panda specimens and animal skulls in the deep forest, and transported them to Europe, which caused a sensation in western countries and became the treasure of the Paris Museum of Natural History.
The emergence of the giant panda in China has made the whole world boil.
Unfortunately, however, during the 78 years from then to 1946, the door of the animal kingdom in China was rudely opened several times by greedy foreign criminals, which set off several rounds of "panda fever" around the world. More than 200 foreigners came to western Sichuan, China to hunt and kill giant pandas crazily, 16 live giant pandas were brazenly transported abroad, and 70 giant panda specimens were openly displayed in foreign museums.
This is the greatest sorrow in the animal history of China and even the world.
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Baoxing County, Ya ‘an City, Sichuan Province, is the first place where a giant panda was found in China, and it can be called "the hometown of pandas".
Ya ‘an, located in the transitional zone between Sichuan Basin and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is known as the "lung of abundance" and "gene bank of animals and plants", with 340 wild giant pandas. It is a dense habitat and main production area of wild giant pandas in China, and also a place where "star" giant pandas are produced.
China is a country of etiquette. From 1957, when the first giant panda was presented to the Soviet Union as a "national gift" to 1982, a total of 24 giant pandas were presented as national gifts to nine countries, including the United States and France, so that foreign friends could witness the elegant appearance of giant pandas in China at close range. Eighteen pandas were from Ya ‘an, and 17 of them were from Baoxing.
Walking in Baoxing County is like walking into the world of pandas. Street hutongs are named after pandas, and even telephone poles and road signs on both sides of highways, as well as hotel halls, corridors, conference rooms and rooms, are covered with beautiful photos of giant pandas in different shapes. Even my hotel is called Panda Hotel. It is conceivable how important the giant panda is in the eyes of Baoxing people.
In Baoxing, I couldn’t help thinking of the giant panda in Qinling. I thought: What are the differences between the giant pandas in Qinling and Sichuan? Why are the giant pandas in Qinling not as famous as those in Sichuan, and few of them can go abroad?
It must be said that Sichuan is at the forefront of the country in the publicity, research and breeding of giant pandas, and has built many research and breeding bases, such as Shenshuping Base of Wolong Chinese Giant Panda Garden, Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base, Dujiangyan Chinese Giant Panda Garden and Ya ‘an Bifengxia Base … The giant pandas bred are all excellent products.
However, both Sichuan Giant Panda and Qinling Giant Panda are important members of national parks. Cute, cute, human, chubby, and awkward when walking … It is a beautiful and unique rare national treasure given by God to China. Panpan, the mascot of the 11th Beijing Asian Games in 1990, Fuwa, the mascot of the 29th Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008, Bingdundun, the mascot of the 24th Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022, and Rongbao, the mascot of the 31st Chengdu Universiade in 2023 … These mascots of international events are all energetic and naive China giant pandas.
Salute, my dear and respectable national treasure panda!
Guangming Daily (13th edition, September 15th, 2023)
