Shennongjia National Park

Located in the west of Hubei Province, and covering an area of 76,950 hectares, Shennongjia National Park is well-known for its vast expanse of primeval forests, a number of world endangered species, tremendous variety of medicinal herbs and some mysteries of nature.

Towering and heavily forested peaks form a striking feature of the terrain and dominate their lowland surroundings. The 6 peaks soaring over 3,000 meters above sea level are noteworthy and highlight the landscape including the Great Shennongjia Peak, the major peak that rises 3,052 meters above sea level and gave the park the honorable name "The First Peak or The Roof of The Southern Central China". Sliced by the past faults, the park is filled with a great number of deep canyons and ravines.

Shennong, the greatest Chinese medicinal herb explorer and researcher in the remote ancient time, had collected and found nu­merous new species of medicinal herbs here. The park's name, therefore, derived from his name. A great number of precious, valu­able and applicable medicinal herbs, such as sanchi (Panax pseudoginseng var.notoginseng), tall gastrodia (Gastrodia elata), Hupeh fritillary (Fritillaria hupehensis), tremella fungus (Tremellaes), bygones rhinacanthus (Rhinacanthus nasutus) and many others grow in abun­dance here. Some medicinal herbs available for treating cancer such as Chinese plum-yew (Cephalotaxus sinensis), Yangtao actinidia (Actinidia chinensis) and so on are collected here. In addition to the natural medicinal herbs, a great variety of moun­tains into brilliant flower-shows. Several species of rhododendrons stand on the mountains at the elevation of over 2,000 meters, where they are in full blossoms even when snow is falling and the moun­tains are iceclad, a severe-cold harsh condition that the other flowers cannot withstand.

Shennongjia is the country of wintersweet, where large stands of pristine wild wintersweets were discovered in 1975. Like white plum blossom in shape, its gold-yellow blossoms come into bloom in cold winter and brighten the snow-covered mountains with splashes of delicate yellow color.

The park's hardwood forests turn to their autumn colors and create an especially colorful display of fall foliage in October, mak­ing a brilliant sight. medicinal herbs are planted in the expanding areas. More than 30 medicinal herb farms conduct collection and processing in the park.