详情

On timeless rivers, life finds a peak
三江并流处，万物集一山
Three mighty waterways provide the lifeblood for a natural wonder. It is a story transcending time, a witness of sea changes, a land with 'mystery rivers', an ark of life, a symphony of natural wonders, a museum sheltering the eternal and the transitional, a piece of evidence showing that life can be both tough and frail, and a history that records people's changing perceptions of nature.
三江奔腾处，为自然奇观提供了生命源泉。它是一个超越时间的故事，沧海巨变的见证；它是一片有着神秘河流的土地，一艘生命的方舟；它是一部自然奇迹的交响乐，一座收藏永恒与变迁的博物馆；它是生命脆弱且坚韧的证明，也是一段记录人对自然感知变化的历史。
It is the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas in the northwest part of Yunnan province, which is located in Southwest China.
它就是位于云南省西北部的三江并流保护区。

三江并流保护区 图源：云南发布
The story began about 40 million years ago, when the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, raising the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and creating the rumpled peaks of the Hengduan Mountains.
故事源于约4000万年前，印度板块与欧亚板块的碰撞，抬升了青藏高原，造就了横断山脉起伏的山峰。
The roof of the world, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, cradles the sources of the longest rivers in Asia. In between the precipitous north-south ranges of the rippling Hengduan Mountains runs a mighty trio of waterways－the Nujiang in the west, the Lancang in the middle and the Jinsha in the east.
有着“世界屋脊”之称的青藏高原孕育了亚洲最长的河流。横断山脉南北纵贯，逶迤险峻。在其之间，有三条巨大的水道——西部的怒江，中部的澜沧江和东部的金沙江。

流经云南山区的澜沧江 图源：中国日报
Respectively they are the upper streams of the Salween River, which runs through Myanmar, the vast Mekong River and the Yangtze River, the world's third-longest watercourse.
它们分别是流经缅甸的萨尔温江、广阔的湄公河和世界第三长河长江的上游。
One singular thing about the three rivers is that they run abreast for 170 kilometers through Yunnan, before the Jinsha River turns drastically northeastward and finally meets the East China Sea.
这三条河流的独特之处在于它们在云南境内并行奔流170多千米，直至金沙江向东北急转汇入东海。
Another is that they run unusually close to each other. The shortest distance between Lancang and Jinsha measures 66 km, and between Lancang and Nujiang, the distance is less than 19 km.
同样令人称奇的是这三条大江彼此之间相聚甚近——澜沧江到金沙江的最短距离为66千米，怒江到澜沧江的最短距离仅有19千米。

三江并流 图源：Youtube@China Documentary
That was how, in 1985, this geographical wonder, highlighted on a satellite map, drew the attention of an expert from UNESCO, which marked the commencement of a long journey to apply for inclusion on the World Heritage List.
1985年，卫星地图上的这一地理奇观吸引了联合国教科文组织一位专家的注意。这也标志着三江并流保护区申请进入世界自然遗产名录的漫长旅程的开始。
UNESCO selects world heritage sites according to four criteria: aesthetic importance, outstanding examples representing major stages of Earth's history, exceptional examples of significant ongoing ecological and biological processes, and the most significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity. Meeting one of them is usually adequate.
教科文组织评定世界自然遗产的标准有四项：1. 独特、稀有或绝妙的自然现象、地貌或具有罕见自然美的地带；2. 构成代表地球演化史中重要阶段的突出例证；3. 构成代表进行中的生态和生物的进化过程和陆地、水生、海岸、海洋生态系统和动植物社区发展的突出例证；4. 尚存的珍稀或濒危动植物种的栖息地。想要被评定为世界自然遗产，通常来说满足其中任意一条就足够了。

三江并流保护区 图源：联合国教科文组织
The Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas went on the list in 2003. Liang Yongning, a professor of geology from Kunming University of Science and Technology in Yunnan, says it is the only world heritage site in China that meets all four criteria.
三江并流保护区于2003年入选世界自然遗产名录。昆明理工大学的地质学教授梁永宁说，它是中国唯一一处符合所有四个标准的世界自然遗产。
Covering 1.7 million hectares, the site consists of 15 different protected areas that have been divided into eight clusters, each providing a representative sample of the full range of the biological and geological diversity of the Hengduan Mountains, Shangri-La included.
该保护区占地170万公顷，由15个不同的保护区组成，分为包括香格里拉在内的8个区域，每个都能提供全方位的横断山脉的生物和地质多样性的具有代表性的样本。

图源：云南发布
Back in the autumn of 2002, Liang, an expert on the team preparing the area's application for inclusion on the list, received two experts from UNESCO who were sent to investigate the region.
梁永宁曾是筹备该保护区世界自然遗产名录申请的专家。2002年秋，他接待了两名来保护区考察的联合国教科文组织的专家。
Two decades ago, the area was one of the most impoverished in China. It was blocked by unscalable mountains and rushing rivers. Roads were carved into escarpments and some bridges were merely cables which people used to get across roaring torrents together with their animals.
20年前，该地区是中国最贫困的地区之一。险峻的山脉和湍急的河流阻塞了它与外界的联系。道路的尽头是陡峭的悬崖，一些桥只是索道，当地人要和动物一起滑索道通过湍急的河流。
'We thought it would take one month to complete the expedition because we needed to cross the three rivers, as well as the divides and watersheds in between, to see all of them. At that time there was no highway connecting the rivers,' he says
梁永宁说：“当时我们觉得需要一个月的时间来完成考察，因为我们需要穿过所有三条大江和它们之间的分水岭。当时河流之间并没有公路连接。”

图源：云南发布
However, no matter how big the sites are, UNESCO allows, at most, two-week investigations.
但是，不管考察地点面积多大，联合国教科文组织最多只允许用两周时间完成调研。
With the help of local people, they planned an east-west route that started from the Jinsha River and ended west of the Gaoligong Mountains located on the west bank of the Nujiang River.
在当地居民的帮助下，他们规划了一条东西走向的路线——从金沙江出发，一直延伸到怒江西岸的高黎贡山以西。
'We tried everything. If there was a highway, we took off-road vehicles. If there was no highway, we rode horses, and if even horses couldn't go on, we went on foot,' he says.
他说：“我们尝试了所有的交通方式。如果有公路，我们就开越野车，没有就骑马；如果马也走不了，我们就步行。”
It was a hard expedition. In the area, a world of sierras, stand 118 glaciated peaks of more than 5,000 meters above sea level. The highest is Kawagebo Peak (6,740 meters) in Dechen county of Dechen Tibet autonomous prefecture, in the Lancang River Grand Canyon. This protected area is inhabited by the endangered Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys.
那次考察十分艰苦。保护区所在的区域层峦叠嶂，有118座海拔5000米以上的雪峰。其中最高的是澜沧江大峡谷中的卡瓦格博峰，它海拔6470米，位于云南省迪庆藏族自治州德钦县。保护区中还栖息着濒危的云南金丝猴。

卡瓦格博峰 图源：云南发布
Liang remembers how the weather kept changing when they climbed over the Biluo Snow Mountains located in the Lancang-Nujiang divide. Biluo's snowcapped range extends 142 km with 15 glaciated peaks measuring over 4,000 meters above sea level. The 4,500-meter-high Laowo Mountain stands out as the most beautiful. Elevation drops 3,200 meters before reaching the Lancang River.
梁永宁还记得，当他们翻越位于澜沧江-怒江分水岭的碧罗雪山时，天气一直在变化。碧罗雪山的雪域绵延142公里，有15座海拔4000米以上的雪峰。其中，海拔4500米的老窝山风景最美。当他们到达澜沧江时，海拔下降了3200米。
'At some points, we very cautiously rode horses along narrow roads on the cliffs. Actually, when we prepared for the expedition, several people were injured while trying the dangerous roads,' he says.
他说：“有时候我们会非常小心地沿着悬崖上狭窄的道路骑马。实际上，在为考察做准备的时候，有好几个人都在探路时受伤了。”

三江并流保护区 图源：联合国教科文组织
The expedition lasted 12 days. When the experts departed, one of them, Canadian Jim Thorsell, gifted Liang a book.
联合国教科文组织的这次考察持续了12天。临走时，其中一位专家，来自加拿大的吉姆·索塞尔，送了梁永宁一本书。
It was a copy of an excerpt from The Mystery Rivers of Tibet by British botanist and explorer Francis Kingdon-Ward, who traveled across the three parallel rivers and the watersheds in 1913 to collect plant species for British horticulture businesses and scientific research.
这本书节选了英国植物学家、探险家弗朗西斯·金登-沃德所著《西藏的神秘河流》一书中的部分内容。1913年，金登-沃德曾穿越三江并流保护区，为英国园艺学和科学研究收集植物。
Liang found their route overlapped in many respects with the one Ward traveled nearly 90 years prior.
梁永宁发现，他们在考察的很多地方都与90年前沃德的旅行路线重合。
'Thorsell read the book and told me the natural conditions of the area had not changed much over the years,' Liang says.
他说：“索塞尔读了这本书，告诉我该地区的自然条件多年以来并无太大变化。”
Ward devoted the whole fifth chapter to the sacred mountain of Kawagebo. It was also a waypoint on the UNESCO expedition.
沃德书中的第五章描写了卡瓦格博峰，而这座山也是梁永宁一行人此次考察的一个路标。

卡瓦格博峰 图源：SupChina
Kawagebo and other glaciated peaks, such as Biluo, Baima and Haba snow mountains, represent the spectacular beauty of the site.
卡瓦格博峰和其他雪峰，如碧罗雪山、白马雪山和哈巴雪山，一同展现了三江并流保护区的壮美。
In addition to the magnificent skyline of the glaciers, the area is also granted with other outstanding scenic landforms, such as alpine karst, especially the Stone Moon above the Nujiang Grand Canyon, and the 'tortoise shell' of the alpine Danxia, a landform characterized by its reddish sandstone features.
除了壮丽的雪峰天际线，该地区还有着其他风景格外优美的地貌，例如高山岩溶，尤其是怒江大峡谷上的“石月亮”，以及由红色砂砾岩形成的、龟甲状的丹霞地貌。

三江并流保护区千龟山的丹霞地貌
As elevation drops from over 6,740 meters to 760 meters, the area presents every kind of natural view in the Northern Hemisphere except those of oceans and deserts－glaciers, alpine valleys, alpine lakes, alpine meadows, broad-leaved and coniferous forests, and so on.
随着海拔从6740米下降到760米，该地区呈现出北半球除了海洋与沙漠之外的各种自然景观——冰川、高山峡谷、高山湖泊、高山草甸、阔叶林、针叶林等等。
Having witnessed a literal sea change, the area is a museum of geology, housing a collection of diverse rock types, such as alpine sandstone landforms, granite monolith and a range of karst formations.
由于见证过沧海巨变，该地区也是一个地质博物馆，储存了各种各样的岩石，如高山砂岩地貌、整块花岗岩巨石以及一系列喀斯特地貌。
monolith: n. 整块石料；庞然大物

图源：云南发布
Despite bordering tropical Myanmar to the west, the area provides various climates for creatures living in subtropical, temperate and frigid zones, making it the region with the richest biodiversity in China.
尽管保护区西邻热带缅甸，该地区却为生活在亚热带、温带和寒带的生物提供了多种气候条件，使其成为中国生物多样性最丰富的地区。
Such unique geographical locations, and hydrogeological and weather conditions create diverse atmospheres, which are summarized by the local people as 'the weather changes every five kilometers'.
独特的地理位置、水文地质和天气条件造就了这里多样的气候，当地人将其概括为“十里不同天”。

图源：云南发布
Being located at the juncture of East Asia, Southeast Asia and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the area not only provides a corridor for the migration of species, endemic or otherwise, but also preserves species that can rightly be called living fossils－for example, the Cyathea tree ferns which hark back to the time of the dinosaurs.
地处东亚、东南亚和青藏高原的交汇处，该地区不仅为地方性物种及其他物种的迁徙提供了通道，而且还保留着一些可以被称为活化石的物种，例如可以追溯到恐龙时代的桫椤树。
hark back to: 追溯到; 回忆起; 回想
The area, described by locals as 'tens of thousands of creatures living on one mountain', shelters more than 20 percent of higher plant species (of relatively complex or advanced characteristics) and 25 percent of animal species in all of China.
当地人称，在这里，“万物集一山”。这里容纳了中国20%以上的高等植物和25%的动物物种。

位于昆明的中国西南野生生物种质资源库 图源：云南发布
For example, the big tree rhododendron is native to the Gaoligong Mountains. Since 2015, people have sought to cultivate the critically endangered plant. The good news is that 60 percent of the 80 saplings planted in the wild in 2017 have survived. So have the 200 saplings planted in May last year.
例如，高黎贡山就是大树杜鹃的原产地。自2015年来，人们一直在努力培育这种极度濒危的植物。好消息是，2017年在野外种植的80棵树苗中，有60%存活了下来。去年5月种植的200棵树苗也是如此。
rhododendron: /ˌrəʊdəˈdendrən/ n. 杜鹃花

Apart from fauna and flora, the area is also home to 16 ethnic groups, including Tibetan, Lisu, Bai, Pumi and Derung, who, regardless of having different languages, cultures and traditions, live harmoniously together.
除了拥有丰富的动物与植物资源，该地区也是包括藏族、傈僳族、白族、普米族和独龙族在内的16个民族的家园。尽管有着不同的语言、文化和传统习俗，大家依然和谐共处。
fauna and flora: /ˈfɔːnə ənd ˈflɔːrə/ 动植物

Today, as more creatures perish at an ever-increasing speed around the world, in the inaccessible mountains of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, new species are discovered, almost every year. This, alone, makes it an authentic natural wonder.
今天，虽然世界各地越来越多的生物以越来越快的速度消亡，在云南三江并流保护区的深山中，却几乎每年都有新的物种被发现。仅这一点，就足以使它成为一处名副其实的自然奇观。