Brown Panda, Qingling Mountains, Shaanxi Province, China

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.
At the middle elevations, conifers like Pinus armandii are mixed with broadleaf birch (Betula spp.) oak (Quercus spp.) and hornbeam (Carpinus spp.). From 2,600 to 3,000 meters (8,500 to 9,800 ft) elevation, these mid-elevation forests give way to a subalpine forests of fir (Abies fargesii, A. chensiensis), Cunninghamia, and birch (Betula spp.), with rhododendron (Rhododendron fastigiatum) abundant in the understory.