Brown Panda, Qingling Mountains, Shaanxi Province, China

Environment, flora and fauna
The environment of the Qin Mountains is a deciduous forest ecoregion.
The Qin Mountains form the watershed between the Yellow River basin of northern China, which was historically home to deciduous broadleaf forests, and the Yangzi River basin of southern China, which has milder winters and more rainfall, and was historically home to warm temperate evergreen broadleaf forests.
The low-elevation forests of the foothills are dominated by temperate deciduous trees like oaks (Quercus acutissima, Q. variabilis), elm (Ulmus spp.), common walnut (Juglans regia), maple (Acer spp.), ash (Fraxinus spp.) and Celtis spp. Evergreen species of these low-elevation forests include broadleaf chinquapins (Castanopsis sclerophylla), ring-cupped oaks (Quercus glauca) and conifers like Pinus massoniana.