Sanjiangyuan National Park: the source of life, the source of civilization, the source of green

Qinghai News Network Damei Qinghai Client News

The source of the three rivers, the ancient sky gathers the mountain sect water source, magnificent and magical, let all creatures live. Si Wei: The Garden of the Nation, the Garden of the Nation.

Sanjiangyuan, proud of the YangYang China region. It is for: the breast of Shenzhou, nourishing more than one billion people in China. Nature has endowed Qinghai with excellent ecological resources and given Qinghai the innate capital to establish a national park.

In December 2015, the 19th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform deliberated and adopted the "Pilot Program for the System of Sanjiangyuan National Park", and Sanjiangyuan became the first national park system pilot in China.

River veins. Photo: Yao Bin

Regarding the significance of the sanjiangyuan national park system pilot, the "Sanjiangyuan National Park Master Plan" is explained as follows: The Sanjiangyuan National Park system pilot shoulders the mission of accumulating experience for the construction of the national ecological civilization system and providing a demonstration for the construction of the national park. Sanjiangyuan National Park is a magnificent chapter in the construction of a beautiful China, an important window to show China's image, a great action of China to contribute to global ecological security, and a concrete embodiment of theoretical self-confidence, road self-confidence, institutional self-confidence and cultural self-confidence.

Relevant data show that the Source of the Three Rivers is distributed with many rivers, lakes, swamps and glaciers, with a total area of more than 1,800 square kilometers, which is one of the world's modern glacier agglomerations and the most concentrated area in Asia and even in the world. The three rivers supply more than 60 billion cubic meters of water to the middle and lower reaches of the river every year, of which 2.5% of the total water volume of the Yangtze River, 49% of the total water volume of the Yellow River, and 15% of the total water volume of the Lancang River abroad comes from the source area of the three rivers.

In the early spring of 2021, standing next to the stone fence of the Bull Head Monument, the summit of Tsozhi gaze Mountain in Maduo County, the Bayan Kara Mountain with snow-crowned peaks is in sight and towering into the clouds. At the source of the Yellow River, under the snow-capped mountains, the cattle and sheep that decorate the mountains and lakes are swimming like clouds.

In the course of history, the source of the Three Rivers, including the source of the Yellow River, the source of the Yangtze River and the source of the Lancang River, is a national ecological protection comprehensive pilot zone and the first pilot of China's national park system, which carries the chinese nation's hope for nature protection and ecological civilization.

Almost all of human civilization originated without rivers. It is no accident that the original birthplace of mankind was chosen in some major river basins. From the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Lancang River to the Nile, the Tigris River, the Euphrates River, the Ganges... Every great river is the cradle of human civilization. But it must be hard to imagine that the source of the magnificent Yellow River is actually only a few basin-sized springs.

The pure land under our feet is Qinghai's, China's, and the world's. Qinghai is the birthplace of the mother river of the Chinese nation, an important ecological security barrier of the country, a climate-sensitive activation area in the northern hemisphere, a global ecosystem regulation stabilizer and a natural species resource bank of alpine organisms, and it is our lofty mission to build a national and even international ecological civilization highland, which is the vivid practice of General Secretary Xi Jinping's concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind in Qinghai.

Sanjiangyuan National Park is a new institutional exploration. Taking the lead in establishing a demonstration province with a national park as the main body in the country is an important measure for Qinghai Province to implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, and is a vivid practice of solidly promoting General Secretary Xi Jinping's "four solid" major requirements and the positioning of the "three largest" provinces.

Over the years, the whole province has continuously deepened the understanding of the "three largest" provincial conditions, regarded ecological protection as the key to establishing the province, firmly established the concept of "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains", successively issued a series of policy measures such as "Qinghai Province's Action Plan for Creating a National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone" and "Qinghai Province's Overall Plan for the Construction of ecological civilization system", and implemented key special projects such as Sanjiangyuan, Qilian Mountain Ecological Protection and Construction, Returning Farmland to Forest, Returning Grazing to Grassland, National Important Wetland Protection and Restoration, Water and Soil Conservation, grassland degradation, The trend of desertification has been initially curbed, the comprehensive vegetation coverage rate of forests and grasslands has been significantly improved, the overall restoration of water bodies and wetland ecosystems, the improvement of water conservation and water supply capacity in river basins, and the promotion of ecological construction and environmental protection have achieved new results and created a new situation.

In 2018, the source of the Yellow River, Zhaling Lake, Eling Lake and Nian Baoyu successively issued a ban on tourism, this obsession with sacrificing some economic benefits in exchange for the greatest ecological benefits, highlighting Qinghai's adherence to the priority of ecological protection and the dedication to maintaining the ecological security of the Chinese nation and even the world.

About 3 kilometers away from the birthplace of the Yellow River, Guzong Liequ is the first home of the Yellow River. Qiu Zhong may not know where the spring water at the source of the Yellow River flows, and does not know the significance to the Chinese nation, but from the time she remembers, her family has drunk water from this spring.

"Our ancestors have lived here for generations, and this spring has nurtured us, and we must naturally protect her." "As the protector of the Jogu Zong Liequ, in this special family, the idea and spirit of protecting the source of the river are passed down from generation to generation.

Once, in the memories of many Maduo people, they witnessed the degradation of grasslands, the fading of wild animals, the gradual disappearance of large and small lakes, the drying up of more than half of the more than 4,000 large and small lakes in the county, and some lakes even swallowed up by yellow sand. Nature is sending a warning signal to humanity.

Nowadays, through the restoration of vegetation, the prohibition of grazing and other measures, especially with the increase of precipitation, the ecological environment of the "Thousand Lakes County" Maduo area has gradually recovered, and the number of lakes has increased year by year, and now it has reached more than 8,000, restored and exceeded the previous level, and the beautiful and spectacular landscape of thousand lakes has reappeared in front of the world.

The average annual increase in water conservation in Sanjiangyuan is more than 6%; the grassland coverage rate and grass production are 11% and 13% higher than 10 years ago, respectively; 17,211 herders have been transformed into ecological stewards, with a per capita annual income of 21,600 yuan.

For a long time, the herders in Tsochi Village, Qumahe Township, Qumalai County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, lived an almost secret primitive life. Television and cell phone signals are not received here, and the exchange of information between herdsmen relies on walkie-talkies. They roamed the grasslands with cattle and sheep during the day, guarding the tents with lone lights flickering at night. In addition to the necessary means of production and subsistence, the herders have minimized their demand for nature.

The ecological stewards of Tsochi Village are herders who have lived here for generations, and they patrol the national park as if they are guarding their own pastures, especially the elderly, whose management experience is accumulated over generations. When patrolling, they listen to the sounds of all things with their ears, they look at every change in the landscape with their eyes, and they feel the joys and sorrows of nature with their hearts.

According to Sigama, local herders will judge the quality of the pasture and the annual growth of the flowers and plants. Like a local grass called Lu Molybdenum, it grows on the river or wetland meadow, and when the weather is warmer, it will bloom red flowers. If this flower grows well every year, it means that the grass must grow well. Another example is a plant on the grassland, Aran Qutong, which is a sign of the opening of spring in the middle and evening of the year, and observing the seasons of its flowering, from which the weather changes can be judged. Every year, the season when Aranqutong blossoms is often the time when the first rain falls in the spring.

Listening carefully to the stories told by the stewards will unlock many of the natural codes hidden in Jiangyuan, why they will fallow in the summer and continue to graze in the winter nests; why they know the secret language of nature and can distinguish the different meanings of birds and beasts; why they have amazing discernment, and can distinguish the species and traces of animals from any slight change.

Protecting it because of the love of nature is a new understanding in the development of human civilization. How to effectively protect nature requires new rules of civilization and scientific knowledge that we have not yet understood. The birth of the national park is based on a higher moral understanding: such nature should not belong to some people, not even to an era, it belongs to everyone, to the present and the future eternity.

From the world's largest nature reserve in high-altitude areas to the National Ecological Protection Comprehensive Experimental Zone, and then to the first national park system pilot, along the way, Sanjiangyuan has witnessed the glorious footprint of China's continuous move towards ecological civilization, and is also a green monument to the continuous realization of the Chinese nation's great rejuvenation of the Chinese dream.