Shennongjia Forestry District
(
Chinese: 神农架林区) is a
county-level administrative unit (a "forestry district") in northwestern
Hubei province,
PRC, directly subordinated to the provincial government. It occupies 3,253 square kilometres (1,256 sq mi) in western Hubei, and, as of 2007 had the resident population estimated at 74,000 (with the
registered population of 79,976).
On July 17, 2016, Hubei Shennongjia was listed as World Heritage Site, the 50th World Heritage Site in China.
The population is predominantly (95%)
Han Chinese, the remaining 5% being mostly
Tujia.
Shennongjia Forestry District is named after the Shennongjia mountainous massif, which is usually considered to be the eastern (and the highest) section of the
Daba Mountains (Daba Shan). It lies within the
Daba Mountains evergreen forests ecoregion.
[1] Some of Hubei's highest mountains - which are also the highest mountains of the Daba Shan - are located within the district. The three tallest peaks, located west of
Muyu town, are Shennong Deng (3,105 metres (10,187 ft) elevation), Da Shennongjia (3,052 metres (10,013 ft)), and Xiao Shennongjia (3,005 metres (9,859 ft), on the border with
Badong County). Laojun Shan, 2,936 metres (9,633 ft) tall, is located northeast of Muyu.
The mountains of Shennongjia form a divide between two parts of the district: the central and northern part drains north, into the
Han River (a tributary of the
Yangtze which joins the Yangtze much farther east, in
Wuhan), while the southern section drains into the Yangtze in a more direct way, via a number of short streams flowing south, such as
Shen Nong Stream.
There are a number of conservation areas in the district's mountains and wetlands, in particular the world-famous Shennongjia National Nature Reserve (神农架国家自然保护区), listed on
UNESCO's
World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
[2] The reserve includes 2,618 square kilometres (1,011 sq mi) of forest,
[3] and, due to a variety of natural conditions at different elevations, has high plant diversity. One survey by Chinese botanists reports 3,479 higher plant species found in a certain area.
[4]
The protected animal species include
golden snub-nosed monkey, whose population in the district was reported to have grown between 1990 and 2005 from 500 to over 1200. A specially protected 100-square-km area is designated for this endangered primate species.
[5]
Shennongjia has sites of scientific interests to paleontologists as well. The Rhino Cave in
Hongping Town has been described by Chinese paleontologists as the richest fossil site in the country after
Zhoukoudian.
[6]
