Mount Taibai is a mountain located on the border between Mei

Mei County, Shaanxi

Mei County is a county in Baoji, Shaanxi, China....

, Taibai

Taibai County

Taibai County is a county of Baoji, Shaanxi, China.Taibai County is located west of Mount Qin Ling and southeast of Baoji City. It is named after nearby Mount Taibai, a major peak of the Qin Mountains. It has 5 towns and 3 townships, including 66 administrative villages, and covers an area of...

 and Zhouzhi

Zhouzhi County

Zhouzhi County is a county of Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. Its population is 630,000. It is famous for kiwifruit, one type of produce in which Shaanxi province excels....

 counties in the south west of Shaanxi Province, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. The mount's highest point, Baxian Tower , rises to a height of 3767.2 meters and is the tallest in the Qinling Range

Qinling Mountains

The Qin Mountains are a major east-west mountain range in southern Shaanxi province, China. The mountains provide a natural boundary between the North and South of the country, and support a huge variety of plant and wildlife, some of which is found nowhere else on Earth.To the north is the...

, as well as the watershed between the Han River and Wei River

Wei River

The Wei River is a major river in west-central China's Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. It is the largest tributary of the Yellow River and very important in the early development of Chinese civilization....

. Mount Taibai is also the highest mountain in Eastern China.

History

The Shui Jing Zhu

Shui Jing Zhu

Shui Jing Zhu is a work on the ancient geography of China. It is an annotated and much expanded version of an older text, the Shui Jing , which has been lost.The annotated version was compiled by Li Daoyuan Shui Jing Zhu is a work on the ancient geography of China. It is an annotated and much...

 records: "During the time of Emperor Wu of Han

Emperor Wu of Han

Emperor Wu of Han , , personal name Liu Che , was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty of China, ruling from 141 BC to 87 BC. Emperor Wu is best remembered for the vast territorial expansion that occurred under his reign, as well as the strong and centralized Confucian state he organized...

, a Daoist temple

Temple (Chinese)

A Chinese temple can refer to any temple which is used for the practice of Chinese folk religion, a conglomeration of China's three main religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism...

 already existed on Mount Taibai that was dedicated to Gu Chun, a man recorded in the Lie Xian Zhuan ." The Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

 work Lu Yi Ji says: "The Essence of the Golden Star

Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

 fell upon the west of Zhongnan

South Central China

South Central China is a region of the People's Republic of China defined by governmental bureaus that includes the provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, however excluding the 2 special administrative regions : Hong Kong and...

's main peak, and thus it was titled Taibai Mountain." (Taibai, meaning "Great White", is an ancient Chinese name for the planet Venus.) The great poet Li Bai

Li Bai

Li Bai , also known in the West by various other transliterations, especially Li Po, was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period. He has been regarded as one of the greatest poets in China's Tang period, which is often called China's "golden age" of poetry. Around a thousand existing...

 wrote in his gufeng poem: "How vast is great Taibai / The Stars across its slopes arrayed / From Heaven it stands three hundred li

Li (unit)

The li is a traditional Chinese unit of distance, which has varied considerably over time but now has a standardized length of 500 meters or half a kilometer...

/ From Mortal Earth so far away."

Nature reserve

In 1965 Mount Taibai became the center of a new Nature Preserve covering the surrounding 56,325 hectares, with the purpose of protecting its warm temperate zone ecosystem. Mount Taibai has warm temperate, temperate, cool temperate, and alpine

Alpine climate

Alpine climate is the average weather for a region above the tree line. This climate is also referred to as mountain climate or highland climate....

. The flora and fauna of Taibai are quite diverse, with species from both northern and southern Chinese environments uniquely coexisting in the region.

The base of the mountain is composed of stone covered by yellow loess

Loess

Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...

 soil, while the middle elevations of the mountain are covered with hardy trees and spectacular rocky outcrops. The higher elevations of the mountain contain glacial remnants, cirque

Cirque

Cirque may refer to:* Cirque, a geological formation* Makhtesh, an erosional landform found in the Negev desert of Israel and Sinai of Egypt*Cirque , an album by Biosphere* Cirque Corporation, a company that makes touchpads...

, peaks, aulacogen

Aulacogen

In geology, an aulacogen is a failed arm of a triple junction of a plate tectonics rift system. A triple junction beneath a continental plate initiates a three way breakup of the continental plate. As the continental break-up develops one of the three spreading ridges typically fails or stops...

, and moraine

Moraine

A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...

, all of which have proven of great use toward geological research.

Environment

Flora from both the sub-tropical and warm temperate climates inhabit areas of Taibai. Due to the mountain's rapid rises in elevation, plants from the middle temperate climate and alpine climates are also found in the same areas. Within the Nature Preserve's borders more than 1,700 different types of seed-bearing plants

Spermatophyte

The spermatophytes comprise those plants that produce seeds. They are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants...

 are found, comprising approximately 60% of the flora in the Qinling Range. Among the flora are found many second- and third-tier protected Chinese species, such as Chuan-Guo Vine, Eucommia

Eucommia

Eucommia is a small tree native to China. It is near threatened in the wild, but is widely cultivated in China for its bark, highly valued in herbology such as Traditional Chinese medicine .-Characteristics:...

, Kingdonia, Dipteronia sinensis

Dipteronia sinensis

Dipteronia sinensis is a plant species in the genus Dipteronia, endemic to mainland China, and regarded in the soapberry family Sapindaceae sensu lato after Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and more recently ), or traditionally by several authors in Aceraceae, related to the maples.Dipteronia sinensis...

, Cercidiphyllum japonicum

Cercidiphyllum japonicum

Cercidiphyllum japonicum, known as the Japanese Judas-tree, is a species of flowering tree in the Cercidiphyllaceae family that commonly goes by the name Katsura tree. It is native to China and Japan. The tree is deciduous and grows to 40 to 60 feet. Its leaves are round. The tree flowers in March...

, Euptelea pleiospermum

Euptelea pleiospermum

Euptelea pleiospermum is a species of plant in the Eupteleaceae family. It is found in China, India, and Myanmar.-References:* Sun, W. 1998. . Downloaded on 21 August 2007....

, Acer miaotaiense

Acer miaotaiense

Acer miaotaiense is a species of maple native to China, in southeastern Gansu, southwestern Henan, northwestern Hubei, southern Shaanxi, and Zhejiang....

, Trochodendraceae

Trochodendraceae

Trochodendraceae is a family of flowering plants with two living genera found in southeast Asia. The two living species share the feature of secondary xylem without vessels, which is quite rare in angiosperms...

, Sinowilsonia

Sinowilsonia

Sinowilsonia is a monotypic genus of plant containing the single species Sinowilsonia henryi. It is endemic to China. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Source:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 23 August 2007....

, Taibai Rainbow (Larix chinensis), Qinling Crow's Head (Aconitum liouii), Chinese Hemlock, Populus purdomii, Circaeasteraceae

Circaeasteraceae

Circaeasteraceae is a family of one to two species of herbaceous plants native to China and the Himalayas.The family has been recognized by many taxonomists. The APG II system , recognizes it and places it in the order Ranunculales in the clade eudicots...

, and Purple-Speckled Peony (Paeonia rockii), and others. About 40 types of animals inhabit the area, as well as 230 species of birds and several species of amphibians.

Mount Taibai National Forest Park is located within the borders of Tanggu in Mei County, Shaanxi

Mei County, Shaanxi

Mei County is a county in Baoji, Shaanxi, China....

.