Landscape of Xishuangbanna
2 min readXishuangbanna is the southernmost prefecture of Yunnan Province.
The prefecture is nicknamed“Aerial Garden”for its luxuriant and multi-layered primitive woods and tropical rain forests，which are teeming with animals and plants.Renowned as a huge natural zoo，Xishuangbanna’s rain forest and monsoon jungles provide a habitat for nearly 1 000 speciesof animals.Within thick and boundless forests wild elephants and wild oxen ramble about，with peacocks in their pride，gibbons at play，and hornbils whispering.Thirteen species of wild life enjoy state protection，including lo-ris，the gibbons，the red-necked cranes，the brown-neck horn-bils，and the green peacocks，which to the Dai people are a symbol of peace，hap-piness and good fortune and whose graceful postures can put professional dancers to shame.
The regjion has 5 000 kinds of plants or about one-sixth of the total in China.This has earned it the renown and sobriquet“The moonstone on the Crown of the Kingdom of Plants””.Among these are such fascinating ones as the“color-changing flower”whose colors change threetimes dalily and the“dancing herb”whose leaves rotate gently.Then there is“mysterious fruit”which reverse tastes，turning sour to sweet.Species of rees that go back a milion years are sill propagaing themselves.The“King of Tea Trees，”which authorities say is at least 800 years old，contin-ues to sprout，adding extraordinary splendor to the homeland of the fa-mous Pu’er tea.In Xishuangbanna，there is a saying:“Even a single tree can make a forest and an old stalk can blossom and beat fruit.”
