The Lunang Forest

　　Located in Nyingchi Prefecture, the Lunang Forest covers an area of 100,000 hectares. Its tree species include spruces, firs, Huanshan pines, larches and some rare trees, such as nanmu, white sandalwood and camphor. Influenced by the warm and damp airflow from the Indian Ocean, the climate is ideal for luxuriant forest growth. Its timber resources amount to 520 cubic meters per hectare.
　　The Lunang Forest also has beautiful scenery. Looking down from the snow-covered summits of the mountains to whose slopes the trees cling, one can see alpine meadows and shrubs, and coniferous, mixed and broadleaf forest belts. At the feet of the mountains are winding brooks and murmuring springs. Cattle and sheep graze in the meadows.
In the immense forest, a variety of flowers bloom, including azaleas, wild peach blossoms, tree peonies and chrysanthemums. A blaze of colors, including red, pink, yellow and white, and a light fragrance fill every corner of the immense forest.
　　Azaleas are particularly abundant here. Of the 850 species of azaleas in the world, 460 species grow in China, and 170 species, or 20 percent, grow in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Twenty-five varieties of azaleas blossom in an area of 1,000 square kilometers at 2,900 meters to 5,300 meters above sea level from mid-April to late June.
　　The Lunang Forest produces a huge amount of mushrooms. When spring changes to summer, edible fungi, including mushrooms and lentini, spring up everywhere.
　　Actually, the whole of Nyingchi Prefecture is an immense forest, covering an area of 2.64 million hectares, or 65 percent of the forest area in the autonomous region. The prefecture has tiber resources of 880 million cubic meters. Of its seven counties, only Nangxian County has fewer trees; the other six counties, such as Nyingchi, Zogang Jomda, Mainling, Bomi, Zayu and Medog, are all rich in forest resources.
　　In ny ingchi, the local people are now very conscious of the need to protect the ecology, forests and wild animals. Afforestation goes hand in hand with timber cutting, and hillsides are enclosed to protect them.