Badagongshan Nature Reserve 八大公山开放生态区

About Badagongshan Nature Reserve

The reserve was in China's first batch of national nature reserves and was the first such reserve in Hunan. It is managed as three forest districts, Tianpingshan, Shanmujie and Doupengshan, and the ridges within it form a watershed: the Li River of Hunan and the Qing River of Hubei both rise here. Doupengshan, the main summit of the massif, reaches 1,890.4 m and is the highest point in Sangzhi County, which falls away to 154 m in the Liuyangxi valley.

The reserve has been taken into China's Man and the Biosphere network, is counted among the seventeen areas in China identified as key for biodiversity of global significance, and is listed as one of the Global 200 priority ecoregions. In July 2023, at the Eco Forum Global in Guiyang, the IUCN named thirteen Chinese sites on its Green List as world's best protected areas; Badagongshan was one of them, alongside Hupingshan in Shimen County.

Because the reserve exists to protect old-growth forest, its interior is not laid out for general visiting, and access arrangements have to be checked with the reserve authority.

What to look for

• Doupengshan, the main peak at 1,890.4 m and the highest point in Sangzhi County
• The old-growth forest that gave the reserve its place in China's first batch of national nature reserves
• The three forest districts of Tianpingshan, Shanmujie and Doupengshan into which the reserve is divided
• The watershed in which both the Li River of Hunan and the Qing River of Hubei have their sources

Location & getting there

Getting to Badagongshan Nature Reserve

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 八大公山开放生态区 with 张家界市 and 桑植县.