Hubei Shennongjia

Hubei Shennongjia lies in the mountains of northwestern Hubei and has two components, Shennongding/Badong in the west and Laojunshan in the east. Together they cover 73,318 ha and protect the largest primary forests left in central China, home to the golden snub-nosed monkey, Chinese giant salamander, clouded leopard and Asian black bear. It is counted among China's three centres of biodiversity. The name means Shennong's ladder, after the rattan ladder the legendary Shennong was said to use to climb the mountain.

The forests drew international plant-collecting expeditions in the 19th and 20th centuries, and between 1884 and 1889 alone more than 500 new species were described from the area. The Shennongjia Forestry District was created on 28 May 1970 from parts of four neighbouring counties. From the 1960s to the 1980s it produced over 100,000 m3 of timber a year, but in the late 1990s the focus shifted to conservation, and felling of natural forest stopped in March 2000.

The district's golden snub-nosed monkeys grew from about 500 in 1990 to over 1,200 in 2005. The forests are protected within the Shennongjia National Nature Reserve, and on 17 July 2016 the site was inscribed as China's 50th World Heritage Site.