Shennongjia is located in the northwest of Hubei Province, which is bounded by Mountains series. Legend has it that in ancient times Shennongshi once tasted many kinds of herbs to find out the ones of medical value and used them to cure people of different diseases; because of the lofty mountains and hazardous passes, he built ladders for people to gather medicine herbs... Later, people named the place Shennongjia to commemorate Shennongshi
As directly under the jurisdiction of Hubei Province, Shennongjia forest area, with total area about 3250 sq. km, is the single region in the name of ‘forest area’. The forest fraction of coverage is 69.5%. It borders on Xian gfan, Shiyan, Yichang , and Wanxian County of Chongqing City. The ridge extends from southwest to northeast. Shennong Peak, 3105.meters in altitude, is named "the first peak of Central China ". The inner part of mountain area is covered by dense woods which seem to be isolated from the outer world. Not only is the scene of primitive society preserved well but also the source of plants and animals is rich. In 1990, Shennongjia is listed as a member of Man and Biosphere Program by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In 1995, Shennongjia is also listed as "biodiversity conservation demonstration" by WWF.
There are more than ten famous attractions in its forest area , such as Partition Rock, Nine Great Lakes, Xiangxiyuan, Xiaodangyang, Tianmenya, Swallow Ya, Songluo River and many marvelous natural spectacles, such as Cold hole, Hot hole, and Tidewater hole and so on. The most attractive is the discovery of ‘uncivilized man’. It is said that there are more than two hundred persons who have seen the appearance of ‘uncivilized man’ in the area, which makes Shennongjia more mysterious. Shennongjia is the only green area well preserved not only in the inland of China but also in the middle latitude zone of the world. Shennongjia, the last well preserved subtropical forest zone ecosystem in middle latitude zone in the world, is the most characteristic and monopolized traveling resource.
