Explore the region
About Dawei Mountain
According to the Yunnan Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, the reserve covers 43,993 hectares, ranging in elevation from 100 metres at the Xiaonanxi river to 2,354 metres at Dajian Peak. It was established as a provincial nature reserve in 1986 and upgraded to national-level status in 2001. The reserve protects a tropical humid-rainforest and intact tropical montane forest ecosystem, with nationally protected plants including cycads, tree ferns, orchids, Parashorea chinensis and Dipterocarpus, and nationally protected animals including the slow loris, clouded leopard and black bear. It contains six vegetation types, including humid rainforest and montane moss evergreen broadleaf forest, and has recorded 6,080 plant species and 1,407 animal species.
A Pingbian county government account highlights the reserve's tree ferns (桫椤), a national Class II protected plant typically 3-5 metres tall and reaching nearly 10 metres, with an unbranched trunk and umbrella-like fronds; the source describes it as contemporary with the dinosaurs and the only woody fern species yet discovered, nicknamed the 'king of ferns'. Dawei Mountain's recorded 6,080 plant species include 74 nationally protected wild plants, about half of Yunnan's total, and monitoring by the reserve's Pingbian sub-bureau has recorded 9 tree-fern species on the mountain, including Dian'nan Suoluo, Zhonghua Suoluo and Xiya Hei Suoluo, about 64% of the species recorded nationally.
What to look for
- the reserve's tree-fern (桫椤) groves, with several of the 9 recorded species
- the reserve's tropical montane forest vertical vegetation zonation
Location & getting there
Getting to Dawei 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 大围山 with 红河哈尼族彝族自治州 and 屏边苗族自治县.
Find Dawei Mountain
大围山 · 屏边苗族自治县
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
The linked sources support the identity and background described in this introduction. Opening hours, admission, activity availability and exact arrival arrangements have not been comprehensively checked. Confirm current visitor information with the venue; the original catalogue locality and editorial review flag are retained.