Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan

In the high mountains of southwest China's Yunnan Province, threerivers - the Jinsha, Nujiang and Lancang - all originated from theQinghai-Tibet Plateau, run roughly parallel, north to south for some170 km. As the crow flies, the distance between the Jinsha and Lancangrivers is 66 km while that between the Lancang and Nujiang rivers isless than 19 km.
The Three Parallel Rivers site covers land of some 1.7 millionhectares. With it come nine nature reserves and 10 scenic spotsvariously belonging to Lijiang City, Diqing Tibetan AutonomousPrefecture and the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture. Located wherethe three geological regions of East Asia, South Asia and Qinghai-TibetPlateau meet, it is representative of rare alpine landforms and theirevolution, and one of the richest biodiversity areas in the world.
Sanjiang is a veritable museum displaying the geological history ofthe last 40-50 million years associated with the collision of theIndian and Eurasian Plate and the lifting of the Himalaya Range andTibetan Plateau.
Every kind of landscape to be found in the northern Hemisphere otherthan desert and ocean can be found here including magnificentsnow-capped mountains and glaciers, precipitous Danxia cliffs andwonderful Karst formations.
The region has 118 snow-capped mountains over 5,000 meters above sealevel, varying widely in form. With them come many hectares ofuntouched forest and several hundred glacial lakes.
Highest among them at 6,740 meters is the snow-capped Meili Mountainwith its 10,000-year-old glaciers. Crystal-clear and sparkling, the icemakes its way very slowly from high on the peak down to the MingyongcunForest at 2,700 meters. It is considered to be the world's finestmonsoon glacier and remarkable for its descent to such a low altitude.For thousands of years, Tibetan people have regarded the Meili as aholy mountain. To this day they respect the need to obtain permissionbefore going on the mountain.
The Danxia landforms in the Laojun Mountains in the Lijiang Area,picturesque in their forest setting, are both the biggest and thebest-formed examples of this geomorphology in China. In places, the redcliffs have weathered away to leave formations said to look liketortoises. On the aptly named thousand tortoise mountain, one canimagine at first a single large tortoise and then on closer inspectionsee it to be made up of the regular ranks of thousands of smalltortoises.
First among China's 17 key bio-diversity areas, the site with itsprecious gene bank, has been acclaimed as being of world classimportance. Though accounting for less than 0.4 percent of the area ofthe country, the region plays host to more than 20 percent of thecountry's most important plants and 25 percent of its animal species.Today the region is home to 77 animals under state-level protectionincluding the Yunnan golden monkey, antelope, snow leopard, Bengalitiger and black-necked crane. It has 34 kinds of plants understate-level protection including the China fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata), the spinulose tree fern (Cyathea spinulosa) and the Chinese yew (Taxus chinensis).
Every year when spring comes again, the region becomes a sea offlowers. There are 200 kinds of azaleas, nearly 100 kinds of gentian(Gentiana scabra), and primroses, Scrophylariaceae, Cypripedium andlilies.
In the meantime, the region is inhabited by 16 ethnic groups, one ofthe few areas in the world where different kinds of people, language,religious belief and customs live in harmony.
In 1985, a UNESCO official discovered this world wonder from amongsatellite scanning images. In 1988, the Three Parallel Rivers area wasdesignated as a state-level scenic attraction with the approval of theState Council.
On July 2, 2003, the site was inscribed on the World Heritage Listas a natural property at the 27th session of the UNESCO's WorldHeritage Committee.