Dachou Ding Natural Ecotourism Area

　　The Xingang Dachou Ding Nature Reserve is situated within the Xingang Forest Farm in the northern part of Huaiji County, bordering Yangshan County of Qingyuan City to the north, and is 69 kilometers away from Huaiji County town. The Dachou Ding Nature Reserve features a warm, humid, mid-subtropical maritime climate. It stretches 9.2 kilometers from north to south and 6.9 kilometers from east to west, covering a total area of 2,377.2 hectares, including a core zone of 919 hectares.

　　The Dachou Ding Nature Reserve consists of mid- and low-mountain terrain, named after its highest peak, Dachou Ding. With an elevation of 1,626 meters, Dachou Ding is the highest peak in Zhaoqing City, while the lowest elevation in the reserve is 625 meters. The significant elevation variation, with a relative height difference of up to 1,000 meters, provides favorable conditions for the survival and reproduction of flora and fauna that require different living environments.

　　The Dachou Ding Nature Reserve has an average annual temperature of 21.7°C, an average annual rainfall of 1,740.8 mm, an average annual evaporation of 1,133 mm, and an average annual relative humidity of 80%. The forest coverage rate in the reserve is 94.6%, with a standing timber volume of 2.11 million cubic meters. Among these, the natural subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests around Huangzha Bridge, serving as water conservation forests, are under strict protection, covering an area of 1,808.8 hectares, which accounts for 75.8% of the reserve's total area.

　　As early as the late 1960s, the Dachou Ding Nature Reserve served as an important base for the South China Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for specimen collection and scientific research, accumulating a large amount of data. In 1990, the provincial People's Congress Standing Committee included the Dachou Ding Nature Reserve in the provincial-level nature reserve construction plan.

　　The main conservation targets of the Dachou Ding Nature Reserve are mid-subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests, rare wildlife, and water conservation forests. The natural vegetation within the reserve includes 160 families, 560 genera, and 1,101 species. Key rare wild plant species in the area consist of seven types, among which eight are under national key protection—two at the second level: wild tea tree, Pu'er tea, wild lychee, camptotheca acuminata, golden cypress, dysosma versipellis, camphor tree, and the artificially cultivated Taiwan fir. Notably, camptotheca acuminata forms community distributions, which is relatively rare in Guangdong Province.

　　The Dachou Ding Nature Reserve boasts abundant wildlife resources. Surveys have identified 258 species of terrestrial vertebrate wildlife, belonging to 27 orders, 71 families, including 32 species of rare and endangered animals protected at the national level, accounting for 27.4% of Guangdong Province’s total of 117 rare and endangered animal species. Among them, two species are under first-class national protection—yellow-bellied tragopan and python—while 13 species, such as macaque, pangolin, and serow, are under second-class protection. The Guadun houso snake was discovered in Guangdong Province for the first time within the reserve. There is also a woodland area known as "Monkey Mountain," where macaques have been naturally distributed.

　　The Xingang Dachou Ding Provincial Nature Reserve boasts beautiful scenery, vast and rolling mountains. The mountain-looping roads within the reserve feature gentle slopes, safe paths, and shaded forest trails resembling a garden, making it an ideal destination for “returning to nature” and leisure tourism.