North China

Sichuan Province is arguably the most concentrated region for pheasant diversity in all of China， including the golden pheasant, Lady Amherst's pheasant, Chinese bamboo partridge, koklass pheasant, Temminck's tragopan, blood pheasant, Sichuan pheasant partridge, white-eared pheasant, Chinese monal, Chinese grouse, Tibetan partridge, Tibetan snowcock, and Sichuan partridgeall gather here. Their calls echo through the mountains, rising and falling, together playing a symphony of pheasants.

In China, from the foothills of snow-capped mountains to the deep, dense forests of pristine tropical rainforests, lives a rare primate—the Snub-nosed Monkey. Currently, there are only five species of the snub-nosed monkey left in the world, four of which are found in China: Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, Yunnan Snub-nosed Monkey, Guizhou Snub-nosed Monkey and Stryker's Snub-nosed Monkey.

The vast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is home to a wealth of wildlife species unique to the region. Tibetan brown bears wander by the lakesides. Square-faced Tibetan foxes sit in patient stillness near the burrows of plateau pikas. Bearded vultures glide in circles overhead. Herds of Kiang assess drift across the grasslands, sometimes even racing the cars on the highway. Wild yaks stand guard over their territories. This is one of the last pure places on Earth, a land of natural beauty that surpasses anything the human imagination can conjure.

If you want to understand the wildlife of the giant panda, you must visit the Tangjiahe Nature Reserve—part of the Giant Panda National Park. This is absolutely the best place in all of China to observe wild herbivores in low-to-mid elevation forests. Here, otters frolic in the rivers, Chinese Muntjac wander through the woodlands. Wild boars and tufted deer forage in the undergrowth, while a black bear’s “couch” is not far away, perched among the treetops. The elusive takin can be seen across the mountainsides, and Tibetan macaques wait by the roadside. As for the night shift—yellow-throated martens, leopard cats, red-and-white flying squirrels—and if luck is truly on your side, you might even witness the dramatic spectacle of giant pandas fighting for a mate.