Bamian Mountain 八面山

About Bamian Mountain

The reserve covers 10,974 hectares, divided into a core zone of 3,137 hectares, a buffer of 2,141 and an experimental zone of 5,696, and 85.2 per cent of it is forested. The relief is middle-mountain, cut by longitudinal and transverse valleys, with more than 1,600 summits above 1,000 m; the ground runs from 860 m at its lowest to 2,051 m at the top. The mean annual temperature is 15.8 degrees and rainfall exceeds 1,900 mm, so cloud and mist are frequent. Vegetation is layered with height: evergreen broadleaf forest below 1,200 m, mixed broadleaf and conifer above that, and shrub and grassland above 1,800 m, including 1,510 hectares of well preserved mid-mountain meadow. About 4,000 hectares of primary broadleaf forest survive.

Bamianshan is best known botanically for its conifers. It holds roughly a thousand trees of Cathaya argyrophylla, the largest and most complete population of that species anywhere and the eastern limit of its range; the largest measured tree is 138 cm in diameter and 24 m tall. It is also the only place in Hunan with mature stands of Amentotaxus, about 12 hectares of them, and it has 13 hectares of pure southern hemlock forest. Recorded vascular plants total 2,259 species in 217 families, and 21 species carry national protection, five of them at the highest grade, including Cathaya argyrophylla and Bretschneidera sinensis. Among 240 recorded terrestrial vertebrates are 116 birds and 56 mammals, with 41 nationally protected species including the clouded leopard, the leopard, Cabot's tragopan and the white-necked long-tailed pheasant. In the 1980s the mountain was designated as a reserve for the South China tiger.

Bamianshan was established as a provincial reserve of 4,973 hectares in 1982, enlarged to its present extent in March 2000, and approved as a national nature reserve by the State Council General Office on 14 January 2008.

What to look for

• The mid-mountain meadows, 1,510 hectares of open grassland along the high ground
• The stand of Cathaya argyrophylla, about a thousand trees and the largest surviving population of the species
• The Amentotaxus grove of about 12 hectares, the only mature stand of its kind in Hunan
• The 13 hectares of pure southern hemlock forest
• The change of forest with height, from evergreen broadleaf below 1,200 m to shrub and grass above 1,800 m

Location & getting there

Getting to Bamian Mountain

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 八面山 with 郴州市 and 桂东县.