Zuojiang Nonggang Birdwatching Sites 左江弄岗开放观鸟点

About Zuojiang Nonggang Birdwatching Sites

A National Forestry and Grassland Administration item, from the administration's own newspaper China Green Times, describes Nonggang National Nature Reserve as the only nature reserve nationally with a north-tropical limestone seasonal-rainforest ecosystem, known in the source's own words as an 'ark' of China's karst biological species, and records 266 known bird species there, 36 percent of Guangxi's bird species. In 2008 the reserve's scientists discovered and published a new bird species, the Nonggang babbler; a Xinhua News Agency report names the discoverers as Guangxi ornithologists Zhou Fang and Jiang Aiwu, and records that the attention drawn to Nonggang created a new local occupation, the 'bird guide', taken up by farmers who guide visiting birdwatchers and photographers.

From 2017 Longzhou County invested a total of 6.96 million yuan upgrading Longheng hamlet, establishing what the forestry administration's item calls Guangxi's first birdwatching base, the Nonggang Ecological Birdwatching Science Popularisation Base, now the centre of an eco-tourism belt around the reserve with 25 homestays built mainly for birdwatchers and bird photographers. Xinhua reports that Longheng and nearby Wangna hamlet together have more than 30 full-time bird guides and dozens of birdwatching points drawing over a hundred visitors daily, and that the county has held an international birdwatching festival every year since 2017, drawing visitors from Germany, France, the United States, Spain and Sri Lanka among other countries. The forestry administration's item adds that the birdwatching economy now extends to more than 30 hamlets across 7 townships of the county, bringing nearly 200 households an average of about 20,000 yuan a year in extra income.

What to look for

• The birdwatching points at Longheng hamlet, the centre of the Nonggang Ecological Birdwatching Science Popularisation Base
• The Nonggang babbler, the bird species discovered at the reserve in 2008 that gave rise to the local birdwatching economy
• The reserve's wider bird life, recorded at 266 species, more than a third of all bird species found in Guangxi

Location & getting there

Getting to Zuojiang Nonggang Birdwatching Sites

Check the open visitor route and follow the site’s rules on distance, food and photography. Conservation areas may limit access beyond designated paths.

• Search for 左江弄岗开放观鸟点 with 崇左市 and 龙州县.