Huangshui and Dafengbao Forest Area 黄水与大风堡

About Huangshui and Dafengbao Forest Area

Shizhu County counts six nature protection areas, including Huangshui National Forest Park, Dafengbao Nature Reserve and the Shuimoxi wetland county-level reserve, covering a combined 41,096.21 hectares, 13.64 per cent of the county's land area. Huangshui National Forest Park is home to nationally protected rare plants including Chinese yew, Chinese Douglas-fir, dove tree and ginkgo, with 5 nationally Class I and 37 Class II protected animal species recorded; Dafengbao Nature Reserve holds more than 2,170 vascular plant species and 41 key protected animal species. The Southwest Commercial News reports vegetation cover of 87 per cent across the Huangshui resort zone, which adjoins the forest park and the Dafengbao reserve and scenic area, and describes that zone as one of the last remaining habitats of the rare metasequoia and one of the Three Gorges reservoir region's richest areas for rare and endangered wild plants and animals, and as one of the first group of China's National Forest Health and Wellness Bases; the zone's average elevation is 1,500 metres, its annual mean temperature 10.4 degrees Celsius and summer mean 21 degrees Celsius, with negative oxygen ion concentration in its concentrated facility construction zone averaging more than 1,500 per cubic centimetre; it has been rated a 'China Natural Oxygen Bar' and a 'National Climate Label'.

Huangshui's climate and soils have long supported the cultivation of Coptis (huanglian), a medicinal herb; archaeological finds trace the area's history to a primitive clan society, and the Shizhu County Gazetteer records that after Shizhu County was established in 619 CE, Huangshui began growing Coptis and presenting it as tribute to the imperial court, with growers and merchants settling there to form Huangshui Old Town over more than a thousand years. Its Coptis-growing system has been rated a China Important Agricultural Heritage System, and the Southwest Commercial News also describes the area as the country's largest producer of water shield (莼菜), supplying 60 per cent of national output. The area also holds three items of national-level intangible cultural heritage: the Tujia Luo'er Diao folk-song tradition, whose piece 'The Sun Rises, Joyfully' is a widely known folk classic; the Tujia stilt-house building technique; and Tujia Wan Niu, whose name means 'playing the bull'.

What to look for

• Dafengbao Nature Reserve, recorded as holding more than 2,170 vascular plant species and 41 key protected animal species.
• Nationally protected trees recorded in Huangshui National Forest Park – Chinese yew, Chinese Douglas-fir, dove tree and ginkgo.
• Huangshui Old Town, whose history as a Coptis-growing and trading settlement goes back to shortly after Shizhu County's founding in 619 CE.
• Tujia stilt houses built to the traditional technique recognised as national-level intangible cultural heritage.

Location & getting there

Getting to Huangshui and Dafengbao Forest Area

Check weather, trail access and the last return service. A mountain or forest area is not one entrance, and a map’s central pin may be far from the trailhead.

• Search for 黄水与大风堡 with 重庆市 and 石柱土家族自治县.