An idea and idyll worth protecting

Rangers at Wuyishan national park keep the wildlife safe from the twin threats of fire and poachers, Yang Feiyue reports.

It was late December, and a winter chill was gripping Wuyishan, a county-level city of southeastern China's Fujian province. A two-hour drive from the downtown area through the depths of lush forest led to Xianfengling (Xianfeng Ridge) of Mount Wuyi, where an imposing fault zone cuts through a myriad of mountain trees.

"It's part of the fault belt that runs 1,200 kilometers from Jiangxi province all the way to Guangdong province," says Xu Zikun, head of a law enforcement team with the Wuyishan national park.

"The V-shaped zone was a result of collision and compression of the Pacific Plate and the Eurasian Plate... and we are in the northern and central part of it, where the strata are relatively stable," Xu adds, as if to assure the visitors of the area's safety.

Xianfengling sits 1,200 meters above sea level and at the hinterland of the forests, so the temperature is much lower than downtown, giving the air a sharper bite.

But its redeeming feature was the offer of a bird's-eye view of Mount Wuyi that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its cultural, scenic and biodiversity values since 1999.

"The forest we see here, characterized by a mixture of pine and broad-leaved trees, is referred to as a mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest," Xu explains.