China has a huge population, a huge land area, huge industries and cities and huge nearly everything else—but up to now it hasn’t had any national parks.
But the first one, set to open in 2020 will be, well, huge: at 123,000 square kilometers, the park in the Sanjiangyuan area of Qinghai Province will be just a bit bigger than the U.S. state of Ohio. It’s intended as a pilot for adding other parks in future.
Plans for the park focus on ecology and preservation of important resources that might be threatened by development or neglect. Importantly, it includes the headwaters of three rivers critical to China and surrounding countries: the Yangtze, Yellow and Mekong. It will have five major areas, including taking in the existing Kekexili and Sanjiangwan national nature reserves.
