'Preserving a magical world for posterity'

"A male Hainan gibbon sits alone on the branch of a tall tree, looking up to the sky with a melancholy look, as if meditating deeply on its future." Photographer Jiang Enyu wrote this sentence as the caption for a photo of a Hainan gibbon in his book entitled Tropical Rainforests of Hainan Island.

Jiang spent six years capturing the mysterious fast-moving Hainan gibbons with his camera. Historically in large numbers on Hainan Island, the only habitat of Hainan gibbons, the species is now listed as critically endangered as the total population is thought to number just around 25..

"From 1997 to 2003, I went to Bawangling National Nature Reserve in central Hainan, the only habitat of Hainan gibbons, three or four times every year and slept in tents for more than 10 days every time in the mountains. I would get up early at about 4 am with the forest workers and we would climb up the mountain using flashlights, with food and drinking water in our bags, to search for traces of Hainan gibbons in an area of 300 square kilometers," said Jiang.