Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve (Photo/Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve)

Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve is China’s first nature reserve. It was established in 1956 near Zhaoqing city in Guangdong province in south China.

Dinghu Mountain is rich in flora and fauna. In June 1956, a group of experts led by Professor Chen Huanyong from the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed to protect the natural vegetation in the Dinghu Mountain area for scientific research. Four months later, the forestry department approved the draft and a national nature reserve surrounding the area was constructed.

Xie Fuqi started working on the forest fire prevention team after the nature reserve was established.

Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve (Photo/Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve)

He recalled that he was having hard days at the beginning as local people’s awareness of fire prevention was comparatively weak. People had no access to gas supplies some decades ago. As a result, they often snuck into the reserve to collect firewood and hunt animals.

Xie said that local people used to play firecrackers while climbing high in the Double Ninth Festival, a traditional Chinese festival that is part of the lunar September, or burned incenses in and out of the temple.

But now, the public awareness regarding the protection of ecology has been substantially enhanced. Some locals voluntarily participate in fire prevention and firefighting work.

Working for more than 30 years for the Dinghu Mountain preserve, Xie Fuqi said he paid more attention to the forests there than himself, and even stopped smoking.

Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve (Photo/Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve)

In 1980, the Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve was included into the UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), setting a good example for nature reserve development throughout China and elsewhere.

Now, Zhaoqing has become the most forested city in the Pearl River Delta, with the forest coverage rate standing around 70.6 percent. About 600,000 visitors travel to the Dinghu Mountain annually since it opened to tourism.