National Parks of ChinaOverview
| Designation | National Park of China (first batch) |
| Province | Yunnan |
| Location | Southern tip of Yunnan on the Myanmar border |
| Latitude, longitude | 21.6, 100.7 Google Maps |
| Nearby sites | Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er, Stone Forest of Lunan, Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan, Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces |
| Highlights | Tropical rainforest |
| Wildlife | Asian elephant, vulture, Indochinese tiger, leopard, gaur, goral, slow loris |
| Area | 1,202 km² |
| Nearby cities | Kunming |
| Themes | Forests, Plants, Animals, Stamps |
About
The Xishuangbanna scenic area lies in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture at the southern tip of Yunnan, south of the Tropic of Cancer where mainland Asia merges into the Indochinese peninsula. It has three parts, in Jinghong, Menghai and Mengla counties, 1,202 km² in all. The name is Dai: “sipsong” means twelve and “panna” a thousand mu of land.
It is rich in wildlife: more than 20,000 plant species, over 5,000 of them tropical, over 10,000 edible, more than 50 wild fruits and over 40 fast-growing valuable timber trees; 429 bird and 67 mammal species, among them the Asian elephant, vulture, Indochinese tiger, leopard, gaur, goral and slow loris.
The climate is tropical rainforest, sunny and wet, with a dry season from November to April and a wet season from May to October; the annual mean is 21 °C, there is never frost or snow, and there are 108 to 146 foggy days a year. Jinghong has recorded extremes of 41.1 °C and 2.7 °C; it is pleasant to visit all year.
Getting there
Xishuangbanna is about 740 km from Kunming, a day and a night or two days by bus. Daily direct flights from Kunming take about 50 minutes.
Stamps
On 20 January 1981 China Post issued T55 “Scenery of Xishuangbanna”, six stamps: dawn on blue water, a Dai village, a rainbow over the Lancang, the palm-leaf temple, moonlight in Banna and flame trees in bloom.
The first stamp of the 1981 definitive set R21 “Scenery of the Motherland” shows Xishuangbanna.
News
On 1 June 2008 a woman vendor was trampled to death by a wild elephant at the Wild Elephant Valley in the Mengyang nature reserve, Jinghong; guards had warned visitors before the incident. In January 2008 an American teacher was badly injured by a wild elephant near bridge no. 4 on the new trail.