Chinese scientists have already confirmed the findings of nine new species of plants and animals as well as 39 categories and 65 species of fungi, Yang Yuming, a famous expert on bamboo and vice president of Xinanlin Institute, announced January 17.

Of the new species of plants and animals, five species belong to the Malus spectabilis family, three are species of bamboo and one is an amphibious animal.

Dawei Natural Reserve, which has 230,000 mu of primitive forest, is in Yunnan province. It is currently China's only rain forest area with a habitat similar to Southeast Asia's hot and humid environment.

Yang attributes the diversity of species in Dawei Mountain to its extremely special position. Not only is its latitude rather low, Dawei Mountain Natural Reserve's surface area isn't very large and its altitude ranges from more than 100 meters above sea level to 3,363 meters. Thus, there's a range of climates in the reserve.

In 1956, the Yunnan provincial government declared Dawei Mountain to be an emergency district and in 1986, the Dawei Mountain Natural Reserve was established.