page_title: Gansu
section_title: Flora and fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Gansu / Natural resources / Flora and fauna
caption_attribution_description: English: Panorama of the lower Daxia River valley, seen from the edge of the loess plateau in NE Linxia County, facing E, S, and SE. On the right, one can see part of the plateau and a canyon cutting thru it. The near side of the river is in Linxia County (Hexi Township), the far side, in Dongxiang County (Hetan Town). Five photos have been stitched with Hugin, using cylindrical projection.
context_page_description: Gansu is a landlocked province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
  The seventh-largest administrative district by area at 453,700 square kilometres, Gansu lies between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south and Shaanxi to the east. The Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province. Part of Gansu's territory is located in the Gobi Desert. The Qilian mountains are located in the south of the Province.
  Gansu has a population of 26 million, ranking 22nd in China. Its population is mostly Han, along with Hui, Dongxiang and Tibetan minorities. The most common language is Mandarin. Gansu is among the poorest administrative divisions in China, ranking 31st in GDP per capita. Most of Gansu's economy is based on the mining industry and the extraction of minerals, especially rare earth elements. Tourism also plays a role in Gansu's economy.
  The State of Qin originated in what is now southeastern Gansu and went on to form the first known Empire in what is now China.
context_section_description: Gansu has 659 species of wild animals. It has twenty-four rare animals which are under a state protection.
  Gansu's mammals include some of the world's most charismatic: the giant panda, golden monkeys, lynx, snow leopards, sika deer, musk deer, and the Bactrian camel.
  Among zoologists who study moles, the Gansu mole is of great interest.  For a reason that can only be speculated, it is taxologically a New World mole living among Old World moles: that is to say, an American mole living in a sea of Euro-Asians.
  Gansu is home to 441 species of birds; it is a center of endemism and home to many species and subspecies which occur nowhere else in the world.
  Gansu is China's second-largest producer of medicinal plants and herbs, including some produced nowhere else, such as the hairy asiabell root, fritillary bulb, and Chinese caterpillar fungus.
caption: Panorama of the lower Daxia River valley in the northeast of the Linxia County, and the loess plateau flanking in, cut by a canyon
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