Forest above the loess
Liupan Mountain is a narrow range running north and south through southern Ningxia, forested and wetter than the loess around it. Guyuan's share of the ridge falls in Jingyuan, Longde, and Yuanzhou. On the Jingyuan side, Liupan Mountain National Forest Park opens in Jingheyuan Town onto secondary forest, meadow, and the upper valley of the Jing River. Xiaonanchuan is a main source of that river. The park covers 67,800 hectares, with forest cover above 80 percent and 788 kinds of plants. The main peak, Migang Mountain, stands at 2,942 meters. Meadow-steppe lies below the forest. Mixed broadleaf and conifer forest occupies the higher slopes. The trees include poplar, birch, Liaodong oak (Quercus liaotungensis), linden, maple, willow, and Armand pine (Pinus armandii). The range is a water-conservation forest, a green ridge in Guyuan's southern mountains.
The Jing, the Qingshui, and the Hulu
A national nature reserve on the same mountain was established in 1982 and raised by the State Council to national status in 1988. It is a forest ecosystem spanning Jingyuan and Longde, published at 26,783.64 hectares, with elevations mostly between 2,000 and 2,500 meters and Migang Mountain again at 2,942 meters. Figures current through the end of 2012 also take in Yuanzhou: a national reserve of 26,784 hectares, and a separate provincial Liupan reserve of 41,079 hectares across Jingyuan, Longde, and Yuanzhou. Both are concerned with water-conservation forest and wildlife. The park and the two reserves are different boundaries. Their published areas do not coincide. The ridge is a source of the Jing, the Qingshui, and the Hulu, with more than 60 streams. Rain caught on these slopes leaves the mountain as those three rivers.
October 1935, remembered at Longde
In October 1935 the Central Red Army, led by Mao Zedong, crossed Liupan. That passage is background to the Guyuan Liupan Mountain Long March Tourist Area, a national 5A attraction designated in 2024, on the east side of Longde County along National Highway 312, about 50 kilometers from Guyuan's urban area, and covering 12 square kilometers. Liupan was the last high mountain of the march. A hall, a monument, and a pavilion stand beside a memorial path of 2.5 kilometers with eighteen miniature scenes, including the Zunyi Meeting and the Luding Bridge—events from elsewhere on the march, not from this ridge. In October 1936 the First and Second Front Armies met at Jiangtaibao, on the west side of the range in Xiji County. That meeting is a later event, kept separate from the 1935 crossing. Mao's ci “清平乐·六盘山” belongs to the crossing as literature, not as a map of these forests and streams. The familiar text was revised several times, and in September 1961 Mao wrote out a copy for Ningxia. The forests, the streams, and the height of the ridge belong to the mountain itself.