Colorful autumn foliage is one of the best sights in Potatso National Park.
China already has hundreds of nature reserves, scenic areas or forest parks, so why we do still need a "national park"?
This is a question Chen Jie, Yunnan Program director of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), is often asked while promoting conservation concepts.
China has nearly 500,000 sq km of nature reserves, the largest in the world, ahead of the United States, Russia, Australia, Mongolia and Brazil.
"But because of limited investment and immature management mechanisms, many of our reserves have not had boundaries drawn yet and 30 percent of them have no administration," he says.
"As a result, many of them are actually still reserves just on paper."
He says nature reserves have strict commercial development restrictions, which actually limits the development of surrounding communities.
"As most of our reserves are located in the country's comparatively poor regions, this has intensified the contradiction between conservation and development," he says.
As a direct result, only one or two counties in Yunnan applied for new reserves in the last three years.
"The local governments worry the reserves will restrict their development and become a burden."
Meanwhile, the country's scenic areas pay little attention to conservation, instead concentrating on tourism development.
Chen and his colleagues say a "national park" might be a better solution.
Initiated by American artist George Catlin, Chen says, national parks have emphasized both conservation and the achievements of conservation. The world's first national park, Yellow Stone National Park, was established in the United States in 1872. Now there are more than 9,800 national parks around the world.
