XU Song-jun

(Department of Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China)

Abstract: Mt. Luofushan in Guangdong province is located at 23¡ã15¡ä¡«23¡ã22¡ä N and 113¡ã57¡ä¡«114¡ã4¡äE. The main peak of Feiyunding is 1281.5m above sea level. It is one of the four famous mountains in Guangdong and serves as a comprehensive nature reserve of South Asia subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest and the rare and endangered animals-plants in the province. Mt. Luofushan is rich in flora and fauna where a total of 1168 species of vascular plants belonging to 676 genera in 201 families have been identified. Of them, 69 species are timber plants, 440 species are medicinal plants and 112 species, oil plants. Because the forest was frequently destroyed and the animals were hunted by human being before, many big animals were hard to survive in the forest. Only a few species can be occasionally seen, such as raccoon dogs, leopards, foxes and so on. There are 10 species of rare and endangered plants native to China found in this area, in which the first class national protection plant is Alsophila spinulosa. Of the animals Panthera pardus fusca and Python molurus bivittatus belong to the first class protection animals. The tourist resources of Mt. Luofushan are rich too. There are a lot of stone caves, springs and waterfalls. From Qin and Han dynasties Mt. Luofushan has been famous landscape in China. The Chong-Xu-Guan is one of the well-known Taoism places in China,where there is a historic site called ¡°Xi-Yao-Chi¡±. This paper raised some suggestions about the long-term utilization of biological and tourist resources of Mt. Luofushan. It is necessary to combine nature conservation with reasonable economic utilization and tourism for protecting natural resources and maximizing its ecological, social and economic benefits.

Keywords: Mt. Luofushan; Guangdong province; biological and tourist resources; sustainable utilization